All Falls Down
by TutorGurl
Summary: Sequel to Picking Up the Pieces. After the summer from hell, the gang tries to move on with their lives and get over the drama from the last 2 months. Nathan struggles to win Haley's heart and trust back before Graduation. NH, LB, PJ, TimOC.
1. The Best Part of Believe is the Lie

_Author's Note:_ Okay, well, like I promised, I'm here with the sequel. I'm sorry if you all didn't like the ending to **Picking Up the Pieces** but if they got together, then there would be no sequel, right? Anyway, I there isn't much to say about this story, it speaks for itself.

To new readers, this is the sequel to Picking Up the Pieces, so you should read that first or else you'll probably be confused by this.

Disclaimer: Shock, the horror! I own nothing. Are you surprised? Oh, no wait! I own Lacy! Yay, me!

**---OTH---**

"Tutor Girl! Hurry your ass up!"

It was the day that every teenager dreads. The day that they all wish would never come; it was the first day of school. Senior year has finally come, and Brooke, Peyton and Haley were having mixed feelings about it. At first, at the beginning of summer, they thought senior year was going to be the best year of their lives. Then summer happened and everything changed. Now, the girls were dreading what was to come and a whole year of being single was upon them.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Haley called back down, spitting out the last of her toothpaste and tossing the brush on the counter. The girls had woken up just in time for all three of them to have a shower and grab something for breakfast. There was no time for debating over the perfect outfit to wear, they all just grabbed something from Brooke's closet and got ready.

"P. Sawyer, you ready?" Just as she asked, Peyton strolled out of the kitchen, her backpack firmly in place on her shoulder. "At least someone is. Tutor Girl is taking forever."

"How come she gets a real nick name?" Peyton asked, slipping on her shoes and waiting beside Brooke. She wasn't really in the mood to go to school today, not that she ever was, but she needed something to wake her up and a stupid conversation with Brooke would do just that. "All I get is my last name."

"With a P," Brooke reminded her. She rolled her eyes. Half the time they complain about her constant use of their nicknames. Now they want better ones? She just couldn't win.

"I'm just saying…"

"You can be a Stooge or a little girl that eats with bears," Brooke told her, giving her a choice for a different name. "Take your pick."

"I'll stick with P. Sawyer," Peyton decided, snarling at the choices. Brooke sent her a tight smile and turned back towards the stairs. For the first time in her entire life, she was scared to go to school. She was worried about what the other students might say about her. Now she understood why so many people hated her. It sucked to be gossiped about.

"Thought so." Brooke was about to call up to Haley one more time, when the brunette came jogging down the stairs, giving her a look that told both girls not to mess with her. As much as they were dreading the first day back, it was going to be ten times worse for her. Nathan and Haley were the Bennifer of Tree Hill High. Now that they were broken up, and for the reasons they were broken up, they were going to be the talk of the school. "You ready?"

"Let's just get this over with," Haley mumbled, sliding on her shoes and standing up straight. She picked up her bag, swung it over her shoulder and stood there. She looked at Brooke expectantly. "Well, are we going?"

"Wow, someone's in a bad mood," Brooke teased, knowing that Haley wasn't really mad. She just got defensive and bitchy when she was nervous. "Okay, let's go." Brooke led the way out to her car, getting into the driver's seat. Haley called shotgun and Peyton piled in the back. They were already half way there before someone finally spoke.

"Do you think everyone will be talking about it?" Haley asked, nervously. She had just gotten used to the little murmurings that went on around her when she started dating Nathan. Before, when she was just Luke's friend, no one even knew her name, let alone talked about her. Now, after dating Nathan and being put on the map, it was almost like she was the most popular girl in school, other than Brooke and Peyton, of course.

"I'm not gonna lie to you Hales," Peyton began, but stopped when she caught the look Brooke was sending her through the rearview mirror. She turned back to Haley, a smile firmly placed on her face. "They won't be saying a word."

"Really?" Haley raised and eyebrow, having seen the look on Brooke's face. "So they won't be talking about you and Jake, either then? Or Nicki?"

"I don't know…"

"Or Brooke," Haley asked, completely turning away from the fumbling blonde and turning to her driving friend. "What about you and Lucas? You don't think that Theresa already has some gory story already all planned out?"

"It won't bother me," Brooke bit out, clenching her jaw and squeezing the steering wheel. Haley and Peyton shared a look, knowing she was lying. "Theresa can say whatever the hell she wants. I know it's not true and my friends know it's not true. That's all that matters to me."

"Sure," Peyton laughed, leaning forward to pat Brooke on the shoulder before slumping back in her seat and crossing her arms over her chest. She slipped on her sunglasses. "I believe you."

"Good," Brooke muttered, her gaze still completely focused on the road.

"Great," Haley agreed, pulling her sunglasses down over her head and turning in her seat so she was staring out the window. None of the girls said anything for the rest of the ride to school.

**---OTH---**

"Lucas!" Karen's voice floated through the house. She had heard her son moving around in his room earlier and the shower running, so she knew he was awake, but he still hadn't come out of his room yet. If he didn't hurry, he was going to be late for school.

"One minute mom," Lucas called back, shoving his last book in his almost empty bag. He wasn't as worried about school as the girls, considering he never really cared much about gossip. Not to mention he was used to the people's murmurs, being the bastard son of Dan Scott and all.

Karen sighed, dropping the knife she was using to butter the toast she had prepared for her son. She wiped off her hands on the dishrag that was hanging on the handle of the oven and walked towards her son's room. She understood that things were always weird on the first day of school, but that was no excuse.

"Lucas, it's time to go." She pushed open the door and walked in. She was surprised to find Lucas standing in the middle of the room, fully dressed and with his bag firmly in place.

"Hey, mom."

"Hey," she greeted. Before she could continue, a low groan was heard from the floor to her left. Her eyes traveled to the lump of blankets on the floor, with a head of jet-black hair sticking out of the top. "Is that Nathan?"

"Oh, yeah," Lucas answered. "He crashed here last night. I hope that's okay with you." He glanced at Nathan quickly before moving past his mother and entering the kitchen. Karen stood there for a moment, watching Nathan coming to. She finally came to her senses and followed after her son, closing his bedroom door in the process so Nathan wouldn't be able to hear their conversation.

"What is he doing here?" she asked, her voice a little harsh. She walked into the kitchen to find Lucas standing at the counter, biting into a piece of nicely buttered toast. Lucas shrugged.

"He came to the door late last night," he answered, taking another bite. "He asked if he could crash here. He looked pretty upset about something so I said it was cool."

"After what he did to Haley, you're still friends with him?" Karen liked Nathan, or at least she did once he stopped bothering Lucas and started dating Haley. Now, after knowing what he did to Haley, and seeing just how much he was like his father, she didn't think she could ever like him again.

"Yeah, mom." Lucas moved over to the fridge and pulled out a jug of orange juice. He reached up and grabbed a glass from the top shelf and filled it with the drink before placing the jug back in the fridge.

"But she's your best friend."

"And he's my brother." He tossed the crust from the toast into the garbage and rinsed his plate off. Karen watched as he downed the rest of his orange juice and put his dirty glass in the sink. Once he was done, he turned around and face her, leaning against the counter. "He made a mistake. I can't hold a grudge forever."

"Dan made a mistake," Karen pointed out, not believing that Lucas was really just going to let Nathan's behavior slide like that. She could remember when Nathan and Haley first started going out; Lucas wouldn't let them out of his sight. "Does that mean that you and I should forgive him?"

"That's completely different…" Lucas started, raising his voice a little. He always got angry at the mere thought of his father. He let out a breath and shook his head. "I'm not having this conversation. I'm going to school." Just as he turned to leave, his bedroom door opened and a very sleepy looking Nathan walked out.

"Hey," he greeted, forgetting that he was just in his boxers. He looked between them, as if not knowing what was going on. "What's going on?" He tried his best to ignore the glare he was receiving from Karen.

"I was just about to leave for school," Lucas answered before his mother had a chance to snap at him. "You want a ride?" Nathan yawned and stretched, running a hand through his hair.

"I still gotta get ready," he answered, blinking a couple times to keep the light out of his eyes. He knew that they had been arguing about him before he entered, they weren't doing a very good job at hiding it. "I'll just go in late. I'm just gonna catch a shower and stuff."

"Alright, man," Lucas answered, moving towards the door. "Just help yourself to some clothes and breakfast if you want. I'll cover for you." Nathan nodded, yawned again and shuffled his feet towards the bathroom. Once the door was closed, Lucas raised his finger at his mom. "Be nice."

"I'm going to work." Without another word or another glance, Karen grabbed her purse and walked past Lucas and out the door. Lucas listened to the shower start and his mother's car speed off down the street. He stood there a moment, biting his bottom lip, contemplating what just happened. He nodded and banged his head against the fridge lightly.

"Well, this should be a fun year." He sighed and pushed off the fridge, grumbling under his breath as he walked out the door, leaving his little brother alone to get ready.

**---OTH---**

That's the end of the first chapter. I hope you liked it and are excited for this. Please tell me what you think. Peace.


	2. Reminders of A Friend

_Author's Note:_ Well, for those of you that are starting school tomorrow like me, I thought I'd give you all an update to make you feel better. Thanks for the great reviews on the first chapter, and I hope you all enjoy this one just as much. Enjoy and don't forget to review.

**---OTH---**

"Yes, we have three classes together!"

Brooke, Peyton, Haley, Lacy and Tim were standing in front of Haley's locker, looking over what would be their daily schedules for the next five months. The girls had meet up with the newlyweds as soon as they entered the school just as Lacy was coming out of the office. She and Nicki had both been registered, her for her junior year and Nicki as a senior. Nicki was able to take the hint when she saw Haley and Peyton both glaring at her and went in search of her first class.

"Well, you did copy my entire opinion sheet last year," Haley reminded the bubbly cheerleader in front of her. Brooke was doing her annual class check to make sure that she had at least one of her friends in all her classes.

"And it was for this very reason," Brooke countered, smiling at her and bumping hips with her before turning to the curly haired blonde. "What about you, Pey? What's your homeroom?" When Peyton didn't answer, Brooke realized that she was staring at something behind. Brooke quickly turned around and spotted Jake walking into the building with Skills at his side. "Oh."

"What?" Peyton asked, snapping out of her daze and looking at Brooke in defense. "I don't care. I can be around him, I can." Brooke and Haley didn't believe her for a second but both nodded their heads while Tim and Lacy remained silent.

"Okay, then I'll just call them over here," Brooke countered with a devilish smile. She knew Peyton was lying, she was still mad at Jake for lying to her, but she would definitely get some amusement out of this.

"Brooke, don't you dare," Peyton warned, but it was too late. The boys had already spotted Brooke waving them over and were making their way towards them. Peyton cursed under her breath and made sure not to make eye contact with Jake.

"Hey, guys," Brooke greeted them with a winning smile. Jake nodded his head at everyone, but didn't say anything because he knew that Peyton didn't really want him there.

"What's up?" Skills pounded fists with Tim and smiled kindly at who he could only assume was the wife. "Hey, Brooke. Skinny Girl." As much as Peyton did want to, she had to look up and acknowledge his presence.

"Hey, Skills." She gave him a small wave. She risked a short glance at Jake and was surprised and slightly irritated that he was looking at her. Brooke watched the blonde and shook her head.

"Hales Baby," Skills cheered when he spotted her. He opened up his arms wide for her. "Gimme some love, girl!" She laughed and buried herself into his chest letting him warp his arms around her. Brooke, Peyton and Lacy smiled at how cute they looked together.

"Oh, yeah," Haley remembered, pulling out of his hold slightly. He still had his arms wrapped around her and she hung her arm loosely around his waist. She turned so she was looking at Lacy. "You guys haven't met have you?"

"Nope," Lacy answered with a shake of her head. She would like to say that she'd heard a lot about him, but she had no clue who he was. She could tell that he was friendly with the group, but most definitely with Haley from the way they were hugging.

"Not yet," Skills answered, smiling at the blonde. "But from what Haley tells me, you must be the girl lucky enough to marry Dim over there." All three girls laughed and Haley swatted him in the chest.

"Be nice," she scolded him. "And yes, this is Lacy aka Mrs. Smith." Lacy couldn't help the smile that came to her lips at the name. It still made her feel all giddy when she thought about it. Skills smiled and reached around Haley to shake Lacy's hand. "Lacy, this is Skills. He's another one of my best friends. Me, Lucas and him have hung out together since we were five."

"I'm her ex-boyfriend," Skills added as an after thought. "I see that she thinks that's not worth mentioning any more." Haley rolled her eyes and shook her head. She didn't think he was ever going to let that go. He acted as if they were engaged to be married or something. Though, if he asked back then, she'd be lying if she said she wouldn't have said yes. She was so in love with him.

"You guys went out?" Brooke and Peyton asked at the same time, both equally as surprised by the information. Haley winced at their volume and closed her eyes.

"Thanks, buddy," she mumbled, moving out of his embrace and shutting her locker door. "I'm gonna get to class. I'll see you guys later." With a tight smile, she quickly hurried off in the direction of her homeroom.

"Oh, no you don't!" Brooke called after her. "Later, guys." She waved at the group absently and chased after Haley. The group laughed at her until she disappeared around the corner.

"Well," Skills began, feeling a little uncomfortable being around them without having Lucas or Haley there. "It was nice meeting you Lacy." Lacy nodded and smiled politely at him. "I'm gonna bounce. See you around."

"Bye," they all called at the same time. And then there were four. Lacy could see that Tim was about to suggest that they leave, but she quickly elbowed him in the stomach to keep his mouth shut.

"We were just talking about our schedule," Peyton finally spoke up. She was uncomfortable around Jake, but she didn't want him to know that and the best way to do that would be to act like nothing was different. "What do have?"

"Me?" Jake couldn't believe that she was actually willing to talk to him. Peyton nodded. He glanced at the paper in his hand. "I got Math, Science, Gym and English."

"I think I'm in your English," she answered, making sure to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "What about lunch?" He held up two fingers and she felt a little better. She had first.

"Well," Tim started, about to tell them his schedule even though no one asked. Before he could say anything though, the bell rang, singling that it was time to get to class.

"We better get to class," Lacy suggested, pulling out of Tim's arms. "See you at lunch, baby." She kissed Tim, waved to Jake and Peyton and went on her way. Tim watched her leave before turning back to Jake and Peyton. This was uncomfortable. He shoved his hands in his pockets and waited for one of them to speak up.

"Come on, Tim," Peyton said suddenly, latching on to his arm and pulling him towards her. "We should get to Art." Without another word to her ex-boyfriend, she started dragging Tim down the hall. He twisted in her grip to see Jake.

"See ya, Jake." He stood there alone for a moment later, watching as all the other students scattered off to class. He sighed, repositioned his bag and started towards his class. He hoped it wasn't like this all year.

**---OTH---**

"Hales," she heard from behind her. She tried to ignore the annoying voice and listen to the teacher, but it didn't stop. "Hales!" It was louder this time and if she didn't answer, the teacher was going to hear and they'd get in trouble. Haley twisted in her seat so she could see her.

"What?" Haley mouthed back. Sensing that Haley didn't want to get in trouble, Brooke ripped a piece of paper off the sheet that was in front of her and quickly wrote her question down. She crumpled it up and tossed it to Haley. Haley couldn't wait until the teacher let them pick their own seats, then Brooke wouldn't have to yell across the room. She uncrumpled the note and read it.

_Hales -_

_Have you seen the dick yet today?"_

_-Tigger._

Haley didn't see the point in writing her own note, just to answer the question. She turned back around and shook her head. She saw the look Brooke was giving her and she knew she expected more. She rolled her eyes and turned back around to write on her desk.

_Brookie –_

_You better not plan on doing this crap all semester.  
I haven't seen him, when would I have?_

_-Tutor Girl._

She crumpled up the note and gave it to Leanne, asking her to pass it to Brooke. Waiting until the teacher was facing the board, Leanne quickly passed it to Brooke just as he turned back around.

"Alright, class," Mr. Baker began, opening the book in front of him. Brooke knew better than to write something when he was teaching, so she waited until he was done to write back to Haley. "I'm going to start this off really quickly, and go right into our first project." There was a collective groan heard around the class.

"Can we do it in groups?" someone asked and everyone quickly agreed with the idea. As much as Haley hated working with others, she was hoping he would say yes. She hated getting in front of the class and presenting alone.

"There really isn't a need for groups," he answered. "But I will allow you to work in partners. I'll even let you choose your own." The class all thanked him. "I'll give you all a book to read, one that has a movie version. You can decide who's going to read and who's going to watch the movie. You'll have a week to work on this."

"Do we have to present anything?" Haley asked.

"Yes," he answer and she sighed. "Each pair will have to put together a presentation outlining the major differences and similarities between the two versions. It would be good to point out any symbols or themes that aren't present in the movie that are in the book."

"We get it," Brooke answered, never the patient one. "Can we just pick our partners now?" Mr. Baker nodded and everyone started moving around the room. Haley didn't bother getting up, just waited for Brooke to come to her. Just as she expected, Brooke bounced over to her with her books, bags and chair in hand. "Hi, best friend."

"Hey, Tigger," Haley greeted back. She wasn't looking forward to having to do all the work, but it beat working with a perverted boy that just wanted to get into her pants. At least with Brooke, she'd be able to hang out with her best friend. Once everyone one was settled and everyone had a partner, Mr. Baker started again.

"Okay, everyone have a partner?" There was a choir of voices confirming his question. "Alright, I'll start assigning the books and movies." He glanced around the class to see the different pairings. "Maria Collins and Tommy Parker, you'll be doing To Kill A Mocking Bird. Nicole Lee and Tracy McDowell, you have The Great Gatsby. Haley James and Brooke Davis, you'll be doing Lord of the Flies."

"Ah, man," Brooke moaned, hearing the title of their book. "That sounds like a lame nature book. Why do I always get the worst one? Why couldn't we get the first one? At least that one has some killing in it."

"Tigger, Lord of the Flies is about little boys turning into savages on a deserted island and killing each other," Haley informed her, finding it amusing that her friend didn't know anything about literature. Didn't she date Lucas Scott for over a year?

"Oh," Brooke answered. "Sounds good. I'll watch the movie."

"Of course you will." Haley was starting to think that this might not be so bad. She had already read the book, so she didn't have to worry about that, and Brooke seemed interested enough in the movie to actually watch it. Maybe she wouldn't have to work as hard on this as she originally thought.

Mr. Baker was still in the middle of assigning the projects when there was a knock at the door and a late student entered. Haley groaned inwardly as she saw his jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes catch her's.

"Mr. Scott," he greeted in a sarcastic tone. "So nice of you to join us. I was starting to think you forgot where the school was."

"Sorry, my alarm clock didn't go off," he lied. It was obvious to everyone in the class as well as the teacher that he wasn't telling the truth, but no one said anything.

"Very well." Nathan moved towards one of the empty seats at the back of the class, making sure he didn't look at Haley or Brooke. "We were just about to start a project." Nathan stopped in his tracks when he realized the Mr. Baker wasn't done talking to him. He turned around. "Everyone already has a partner, so I guess I'll have to make a group of three."

"He better not do what I think he's about to do," Brooke whispered to Haley, glaring a hole in Nathan. Haley didn't say anything though, which Brooke found weird.

"You can work with Ms. James and Ms. Davis." Brooke immediately started cursing the teacher out under her breath, while Haley just watched Nathan reluctantly walk over to them. He wasn't happy about this either. He pulled an empty chair over with him and plopped down in it.

"Don't. Say. Anything," Brooke warned him. He rolled his eyes at her, more than used to her attitude. He unzipped his bag and pulled out a pen and a piece of paper that he had taken from Luke's house. He risked a look at Haley and was surprised to find that she didn't appear to be angry with him.

"So, what are we doing?"

**---OTH---**

All done. I know, nothing excited, but what can I do. I'm just getting everything started, right? Okay, well, please tell me what you think. And hey, I just noticed that this was their first day of school as well! How perfect is that? Please review.


	3. New Lives to Make Us Better

_Author's Note:_ It's been a while. I know. Just dropping in with a quick update. Thanks for the reviews. Keep them up. Enjoy.

**---OTH---**

"Can you believe this?"

It was the second day of school and Brooke, Haley and Peyton where all seated around their usual lunch table in the cafeteria, glad to see that none of the juniors had been stupid enough to try and take what was theirs. They all had their plates full of not so delicious café food and a can of pop each, the normal lunch for any teenager. Their eyes wandered to the doorway, waiting for the boys to make their way through at any moment. Whitey had called a meeting for anyone trying out for the basketball team this year, so the boys were going to be a little late.

"I know," Peyton agreed, nervously chewing on a fry. "What are the odds that all of us have the same lunch?" Yesterday hadn't been pretty at lunchtime, and she didn't imagine that today was going to be any different. They had all made a packed that nothing was going to be weird between them, that they were going to be grown ups about the whole thing.

"Yeah, well, you can thank Principle Turner for that," Haley commented, feeling a little uneasy at the situation, but not as bitter or nervous as Peyton seemed to be.

"Why on earth would he think that it's a good idea for all the seniors and juniors to have the same lunch?" Brooke questioned. As much as she denied it, things weren't as great between her and Lucas as she made it seem. Yes, they had parted on very good terms and agreed not to see other people while they were on their break, but it still hurt that they weren't together in the same sense.

"I don't know," Haley answered, pushing her plastic fork through the gravy-covered fries in front of her. She knew it wasn't the healthiest thing she could be having, but it looked like the only eatable thing being served today. "I guess they didn't want anymore freshmen getting beat up by the seniors."

"Makes sense," Peyton mused, bitterly. On one hand, she hated that she'd have to sit at the same table with Jake for forty minutes, but on the other, she was glad that she'd be able to keep an eye on him this way. "If you think about it."

"It's just a shame that our feelings must take a backseat to the greater good of mankind." Haley and Peyton stopped playing with their food to look at Brooke like she was crazy. "Fine, I guess I can suffer through forty minutes of Scott drama if it saves some poor freshman from getting his ass kicked."

"How kind of you," Haley muttered. She stabbed an unlucky French fry with her fork before sighing and dropping it. She propped her chin on her hand to look at Brooke. "What are you so suffering from, anyway? I thought you and Lucas were cool with each other."

"We are," Brooke immediately answered. She never did tell them that it was his idea to take a break, and that she had only agreed to save face. She didn't want to stop dating him, she loved him, but apparently she was at the top of her priority list. "It's just, I don't know." She paused and tried again. "It's just…"

"Hard," Peyton and Haley filled in at the same time. Brooke looked at them in amusement for a moment before nodding. They shared smiles and went back to eating their lunches.

"Hey, guys," Lacy called out as she made her way over to their table. She had planned on waiting for Tim, but the lunch line was starting to get too big and she was afraid that she looked like a loser standing up there all alone. The three best friends all glanced up, happy to have something to distract them from their thoughts of ex-boyfriends.

"Lacy, what's up?" Brooke asked, a little to loudly and a little too excitedly. She caught the looks the others were giving her, but she chose to ignore them. Instead, she slid over on her side of the bench, which was across from Haley and Peyton, so their blonde friend could sit down.

"Nothing," she answered, smiling gratefully at Brooke. She was glad that they were being so nice to her. As horrible as it sounded, she had to admit that she was a little worried that they may ditch her when school started because she was only a junior and the 'new kid'. "I got tired of waiting for Tim."

"Oh," Haley nodded, hoping she didn't sound to lame. "Whitey's meeting is done already?" Peyton and Brooke were too interested in the answer themselves to bother teasing Haley about how interested she sounded. She was, after all, supposed to be okay with her and Nathan being just friends.

"I guess," she shrugged, sliding onto the bench beside Brooke and placing her food on the table. "Grandpa's always been known to get straight to the point with things, I wouldn't imagine that basketball is much different."

"That is so weird," Haley mused, pointing her fork at the blonde across from her after she ate another fry. She took a moment to swallow her food before continuing. "I can't picture Whitey being a Grandpa, you know? He'll always be that hard ass cutie that'll ride those boys till the days he dies."

"I don't know," Peyton disagreed, remembering how good Whitey had been with her back when she was having trouble dealing with her mother's death. "He can be a softie when he wants to be." Brooke raised an eyebrow at her friend, but didn't say anything. "Yeah, me and Whitey are having a little affair on the side. Sorry, I know how hot you think he is."

"You're a regular laugh riot, Sawyer," Brooke answered back in a dry voice, not finding Peyton's attempt at a joke very humorous. There are just some things that you should never joke about, and sleeping with Whitey was one of those things.

"I try."

"Could we not talk about my Grandfather like that?" Lacy asked, making a disgusted face that matched the one that Haley and Brooke were making. "It's more than a little disturbing."

"I second that," Haley agreed, glaring pointedly at the curly headed blonde that was still laughing at the looks on their faces. Brooke raised her hand, indicating that she agreed. She probably would have vocalized her opinion, she always did, but her mouth was currently full of Haley's fries.

"You guys are no fun," Peyton complained, still laughing at her friends. Suddenly, she stopped laughing as she spotted the guys walking their way, lunch trays in hand. Nathan, Lucas and Jake all looked a little miserable at the idea of having to spend the next half hour with the women they hurt. Tim and Skills seemed to be in high spirits as they approached the table.

"Ladies," Skills greeted them, immediately slipping into the empty spot on the other side of Haley. He dropped his bag on the floor and kicked in under the table with the rest of the bags. He put his tray down and squished against Haley so Lucas and Nathan could fit on the end.

"Hey guys," Haley said weakly, glad that Nathan was on her side of the table. That way she didn't have to look at him. Even though she had told him that they could be friends, and told herself over and over that she could be around him, she just wasn't ready yet. "What did Whitey want?"

"Just wanted to let us know that he's going to start practices soon," Skills answered before any of the other guys could, not that they were in any rush to say anything. Jake was busy scanning the café, looking for Nicki so he could talk to her again. Lucas was trying to get a glance at Brooke from across the table and Nathan was finding his food very fascinating. Finally, of course, Tim and Lacy were too completely wrapped up in each other to notice the question.

"Oh, you're trying out this year?" Brooke asked, hoping to make conversation.

"Yeah."

"He finally realized that he was too good for the Rivercourt," Lucas answered, making sure to look Brooke directly in the face. They did manage to lock eyes for a moment before she tore her gaze away. Lucas frowned, but didn't say anything. He cleared his throat. "So, when are you guys starting cheerleading?"

"I think the tryouts are on Friday," Peyton answered unsurely, glancing back and forth between Lucas and Brooke. "Right, Brooke?" The brunette's head snapped up at her name and she looked at Peyton.

"What?"

"Cheerleading," Peyton clarified, giving her a pointed look. "Tryouts are on Friday, right?" Brooke's eyes widened at the words and she nodded her head, feeling incredibly stupid for not being able to pay attention.

"Yeah, yeah," she answered quickly. She glanced at the rest of the table, making sure that she caught Luke's eyes for a moment. "I can't wait to see those freshmen shake their asses. Always good for a laugh."

"That's mean," Haley pointed out, not even looking up from her food. If she had been paying attention, she would have realized that her actions were mirroring Nathan's at the moment. Brooke raised an eyebrow at the comment and stared Haley down.

"Are you trying out this year, Hales?" she asked. She had been bugging her best friend since they first starting hanging out to join the team, but Haley never changed her mind. If the prospect of checking out her hot boyfriend get sweaty playing basketball wasn't enough to get her on the team, then spending extra time with that same ex-boyfriend wasn't going to do the job either.

"What was my answer at the beginning of summer?"

"No."

"And what was my answer at the beginning of soccer season last year?"

"No."

"And the beginning of basketball season?"

"No."

"And the time you asked before that?"

"No."

"And the time before that?"

"No."

"And the time before…"

"Her answer's no," Nathan cut in with a sharp tone, getting annoyed at where this conversation was going. He always kind of liked it that Haley was never a cheerleader, like it somehow made her even sexier. All the girls that he had dated had all been on the cheerleading team; he wanted something different. Plus, if she joined the team now, he didn't think he'd be able to handle practicing when she was just a few feet away in a mini skirt, dancing around every other afternoon.

"Thanks," Haley muttered, sending him a quick glance and smile before returning to her food. Brooke sent Nathan a death glare that could kill even Dan Scott. The rest of the table knew better than to say anything and remained silent. Knowing that Brooke was glaring at him, Nathan finally looked up.

"What?"

"Do not even start with…" Brooke trailed off when she spotted another person making their way over to their table. Suddenly, telling Nathan off was the least of her worries.

"Tigger?" Haley asked, surprised that her friend would just stop like that. She saw that everyone was staring at someone, and turned to look at who was coming over. It took her a moment to place the face, but when she did, her stomach dropped. Nicki. "Oh."

"That's just great," Peyton muttered under her breath, narrowing her eyes at the little ho bag as she continued to walk over to them, completely oblivious to the death stares she was receiving from almost half the table.

"Hello," was the first thing that Nicki said when she finally got to the table. She ignored everyone else and focused all of her attention on Nathan. "Hey, sweetie. Do you mind if I sit here?" Nathan looked at her like a dear caught in headlights. He wasn't aware that they were still going out. The last thing he wanted was for Haley to feel uncomfortable.

"Oh, um," he stuttered, quickly looking around the table. It seemed to be unanimous that nobody wanted Nicki there, which the exception Lacy maybe. His eyes lingered on Haley for a moment and he noticed that she looked pretty upset. There was a part of him that would like nothing more that to make her feel half the pain that she caused him when she said no to his proposal, but his good sense won out. "Sorry, Nicki. I don't think that there's enough room…"

"You can take my spot," Haley spoke up. Everyone's eyes shot to her, surprised at what she said. Brooke and Peyton looked at her like she had gone crazy and Nathan looked over at her, feeling guilty.

"Hales, come on, you don't have to…"

"It's okay," she assured him. She placed a quick kiss Skills' baldhead as she stood up and grabbed her bag from under the table. "I have a Guidance appointment in a few minutes anyway." She swung her bag over her shoulder and pushed her tray over so it was in front of Tim.

"Hales," Brooke and Peyton tried, but stopped when she shook her head. She shrugged her shoulders at them, telling them not to worry about her.

"See you guys later." With one little wave and a small smile, Haley quickly shuffled off towards the doors. She could feel all of her friends' eyes on her and she tried her best to ignore them.

**---OTH---**

"Ms. Ward?" Haley called, knocking softly on the open door. She already knew the older woman was in there because she could see her seated at her desk, but she thought it would be polite to make her presence known.

"Yes?" she asked, spinning around in her chair to face the door. A smile graced her face when she saw one of her favorite students standing there. "Haley, come on in." Haley smiled at her and shut the door as she entered the homely office. She loved it in there because it had such a warm feeling to it. She had spent more than enough time in there over the last three years to feel at home in there.

"Thanks." Haley dropped her bag to the floor and plopped down in the chair on the other side of her desk. She waited patiently for Ms. Ward to finish doing whatever she was doing, before they could talk.

"I'll be with you in a moment," she told Haley in a nice tone. Haley loved Ms. Ward; she was definitely her favorite person on the staff at Tree Hill High. She was a pretty young blonde woman, maybe around 26 or so. At first Haley was a little intimidated by her beauty, but it didn't take her long to get comfortable around her.

"It's no problem," Haley assured her, not really in the mood to get to class in any kind of hurry anyway. After a few more minutes, Ms. Ward printed out her document and spun around in her chair to face Haley.

"I'm all yours," she informed her. Before Haley had a chance to tell her what she was here for, Ms. Ward interrupted her. "Oh, and what was with the whole Ms. Ward thing at the door a moment ago? Didn't I tell you to call me Susan?"

"Right, sorry," Haley answered, nodding her head. It felt weird to be calling a teacher by their first name, but she tried to look passed it. She was always taught that it was polite to call elders by their last names. The only adults she could think of that she was on a first name basis with were Karen and Keith, and Deb to an extent.

"So, what can I do for you?"

"I wanted to start looking at different colleges," Haley answered, digging through her bag to find a pen and paper to write with. Once she successfully found her blue pen and now crumpled piece of paper, she motioned for Susan to continue.

"Isn't it a bit soon to start that stuff?" Susan asked, a little surprised. She figured that Haley would want to talk about something that had happen to her over the summer, or something about her parents, like she usually did. "I mean, it's only the second day back, Hales. You gotta give me a little time to get my stuff in order."

"I know," she nodded. "But I've been thinking lately, that I wanted to maybe start looking at schools that have early admissions, you know? I'm just so sick of this town and this school."

"Whoa," Susan laughed, a little taken aback by Haley's attitude this year. Last year she seemed to be so excited about senior year, even sad about leaving the town she had grown up in. "Talk about major attitude adjustment. What happened over the summer to get you so bummed?"

"Where do I start?" Haley asked rhetorically. Normally, she would never just tell anyone this, but she knew she could trust Susan and she always felt better about things after talking to her about them.

"Wherever you want." Susan could tell that something major happened because Haley wasn't her usually perky self.

"Well," Haley breathed. "You know Nathan, my boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend?"

"Aw, you guys broke up?" Susan asked, her voice full of sympathy. It may be a little unprofessional, but she really adored Haley and Nathan together. She was one of the only people that actually thought they'd make it. She also knew how much Haley loved him. This defiantly explained why Haley was so down. "What happened, sweetie?"

"He cheated on me with some bar slut," Haley began. "Who, turns out isn't a slut, but just a really nice girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. To make an incredibly long story short, she's pregnant with his kid, but they aren't even together, she's married to Nathan's best friend Tim, who is also my good friend."

"Wow," was all Susan could say. She shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around everything that Haley just said. She didn't think that kind of stuff really happened in real life. Well, in Tree Hill anyway. She looked at Haley for confirmation and she nodded. "Anything else?"

"There is, but it's not really important," Haley told her, even though she knew it was a sarcastic question. "I'm friends with Brooke and Peyton again, and I'm sure that Nathan will get bored of Nicki soon." She looked down at her lap, trying to think of anything else that went wrong in her life over the summer. Her eyes light up. "Oh yeah, and I die."

"I don't even want to know." Haley gave her a lopsided grin and nodded her head, letting her know that she was probably making the best choice. Deciding that it was best to get back on track, Susan straightened up. "So, which colleges were you looking at?"

"Any good one, really," Haley answered. "As long as it excepts early admissions, and is far away from Tree Hill, then I'll be good." Susan nodded and turned back to her computer.

"Let me just pull up your record," she suggested, more just talking out loud than actually talking to Haley. "Haley James, Haley James, Haley … oh, there you are." Haley watched as she clicked on her name and her entire school record popped up. She made a face when she saw last years school picture on the top of the page. She couldn't wait to get a new one this year.

"God, I hate that picture," she mused, continuing to make the face. Susan glanced at her and laughed.

"Nah, I think you look adorable," she assured her. Haley rolled her eyes, knowing she was probably just saying that cause she had to. "Okay, here we go. Let's take a look at your transcript." Haley leaned forward on the desk so she could see the computer screen as well.

"Does everything look okay?" she asked, after Susan didn't say anything. She didn't answer right away, instead click on a few things and scrolled through a page or two.

"Everything looks good," she answered without turning around. "All your grades are amazing, at the moment you're at the top of all your classes, you have a lot of community service hours with the tutoring. All good things to have when applying to colleges."

"But?" Susan sighed and turned to her, knowing she wasn't going to like what she had to say.

"You really need an extra curricular activity," she answered. Haley's eyes widened and she shook her head. "I know, it's not your thing, but that's one of the first things that colleges look at. Grades are important, but without any school activities, there's a good chance they won't look at you, especially for early admissions."

"But I don't do team sports," Haley argued. She knew this whole avoid gym and anything remotely associated with gym like the plague was going to come back to bite her in the ass. "I'm amazingly uncoordinated. I almost drown in the balls at Chucky Cheese. I swear."

"I'm just warning you."

"Doesn't tutoring count?"

"It definitely beefs up the transcript, but it will only take you so far," Susan explained. "I know that it's the last thing you want to hear, but if I were you, I'd drop the tutoring and find some kind of after school activity that's active, but doesn't involve a ball of any kind."

Haley grumbled under her breath and folded her arms over her chest. This sucked.

**---OTH---**

Haley handed her admit slip to the teacher as she entered fourth period late and shuffled over to her desk beside Brooke. She dropped her bag on the floor before she reached her desk and kicked it the rest of the way over. Brooke watched Haley with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey," Brooke greeted her friend in confusion. "What's up?" Haley grunted in response and dropped into the chair attached to her desk. Once she was seated, she leaned forward and buried her head in her arms. After a moment she tilted her head to the side slightly so Brooke would be able to hear her.

"When do cheerleading tryouts start again?"

**---OTH---**

All done for now. Tell me what you think. Peace.


	4. You Just Can't Free Yourself

_Author's Note_: Here to drop off a quick update. I don't like this chapter much, but oh well. What can I do? Anyway, thanks for all the reviews and I just wanted to let anyone know that's reading my other story; **In Need of Saving**, I'm going to start the update soon and it should be out early next week. I'm gonna try for Monday. Hope you enjoy this though.

**---OTH---**

"Where the hell is Dick Head?"

The first week of school was finally almost over. It was Thursday night and Friday just couldn't come soon enough. Brooke, Haley and Nathan had made plans to meet at Haley's house that night to finally start working on their project on Lord of the Flies for English class. Haley had pretty much been dreading their little meeting all day, not knowing how well she was going to be able to handle having Nathan in her house. Hell, she hadn't even spend more than five minutes around him with less then two other people, so she was more than a little nervous about the awkward moments she knew they were going to have that night.

"Brooke, can you please stop calling him that?" Haley sighed from her laying position on her bed. She was staring up at the ceiling, silently telling herself to calm down over and over again. Brooke watched her from the computer chair as she tossed her friend's stress ball up and down.

"Why?" she asked, catching the ball with ease. "That's what he is, isn't he?"

"I guess," Haley mumbled, glancing at Brooke for a moment before looking back at the white tiling of the ceiling. Brooke had come by about an hour ago, explaining that she had nothing better to do. When Haley had suggested that they start on the project early, Brooke immediately shot that idea down, saying that they were not going to be doing any work when it wasn't necessary.

"You guess?"

"Okay," Haley sighed. She hated when Brooke didn't leave things alone. "He's the king of Dick Heads, but that doesn't mean that you need to remind me of that every second."

"Everyone needs a nickname, Hales," Brooke told her, tossing the ball back on the desk and rolling the chair closer to the bed. "You're a girl and you tutor people…"

"Hence Tutor Girl," Haley filled in, amazingly knowing exactly where this was going.

"Nathan's a dick and he has a head," Brooke continued, leaving the rest of her statement in the air. Haley rolled her eyes, but still didn't turn to face her friend.

"There's some Grade A logic for you," she mumbled under her breath."

"Haley, that's my thing, I give people nicknames," Brooke explained, jumping off the chair and plopping down on the bed beside her best friend. "Everyone has a thing, right, something that they're good at."

"Brooke…"

"Think about it," she continued, completely ignoring Haley's attempts at getting her to shut up. Brooke Davis stop talking if she had something to say? Never. She shifted her position, lying down beside her best friend on the bed. "I mean, you've got the whole singing thing, not to mention the books, Pey's got her art and her unhealthy obsession with incredibly horrible music…"

"It's not horrible music," Haley commented, knowing that it was pointless.

"The boys are busy throwing a ball threw a hoop, which apparently is an important skill to have in life." Was Brooke bitter at Lucas? Nah. "Mouth has his website, Lacy's good at … something, I'm sure, and Nicki's got the whole psycho stalker bitch routine down pat…"

"Whoa, wait," Haley interrupted, making sure that she was loud enough this time to actually get Brooke to stop her ranting. The other brunette closed her mouth and turned her head to the side, surprised to find that Haley had actually tore her gaze away from the ceiling to look at her.

"What?"

"Since when do you include Nicki in things like this?" Brooke looked at her blankly, completely confused at the tone in Haley's voice. If Brooke didn't know any better, she would say that Haley was a little jealous, but jealous of what, she wasn't sure.

"Things like what?"

"Well you were going through the whole gang," Haley explained, leaning up so she was resting on her elbow, looking down at Brooke. "You used me as an example, Peyton, the guys, Lacy, even Mouth, and then you said Nicki, like she's part of our gang now."

"Oh," Brooke answered back, mentally berating herself for being so stupid. She should have never mentioned her, but she just couldn't resist getting in a good jab at Nicki where it was possible. "Look, it's not like I want her to be, but she kinda is now, whether wanted or not."

"She is not!" Haley protested, upset that Brooke would even suggest that she was. Haley refused to believe that Nicki was going to be anything but a current annoyance.

"Well, she is Lacy's sister," she pointed out, feeling bad that she was ruining Haley's already crappy night. The last thing she wanted to be doing is making a case as to why they should be considering Nicki their 'friend'. "Not to mention she's Jenny's mom, Jake's 'wife' and Nathan's…"

"Girlfriend," Haley finished for her, the bitterness clearly heard in her voice. "I know, thanks." She was not jealous; she would not let herself be.

"I was going to say whore, she's Nathan's whore," Brooke informed her, smiling slightly at Haley's behavior. She so wanted Nathan, and as much as Brooke hated that her friend wasn't over that ass, she thought it was kind of cute, in a masochistic kind of way. "But you're word works too."

"Whatever," she mumbled, silently cursing herself for getting caught. Fine, she was jealous. Are you happy now, Brooke? She let her arm loose and flopped back down on the bed with a sigh.

"I thought you didn't want him anymore." Brooke couldn't help herself. Maybe it has been wishful thinking on her part that had made her misunderstand her best friend's actions, but she was pretty sure that Haley made her feelings for Nathan perfectly clear when she turned down his offer to get back together.

"I'll always want him, Tigger," Haley admitted without a second thought. Brooke frowned at the slight longing in Haley's voice. This was not a good thing. "I just can't have him."

"Are you kidding?" Brooke asked. "That boy would give his left nut to get back together with you." Haley laughed slightly at her words and shook her head.

"I can't bring myself to be with him again, is what I mean," Haley corrected herself. Why were they having this conversation again? Haley sighed and turned on her side so she was facing Brooke, who mirrored her actions. "I get that he made a mistake, we all make mistakes, and I've even forgiven him for it."

"But you can't trust him, I get that," Brooke nodded, completely understanding where Haley was coming from. She would feel the exact same as Haley does if she was in her situation, but she probably wouldn't have been able to forgive him, she just wasn't as big a person as Haley was. "But, I mean, you want to start dating eventually, right?" Haley shrugged. "You can't stay single forever, Hales, especially with such a hot ass."

"I don't know," Haley answered honestly. She hadn't even thought of that. She was really having a hard time thinking of what it would be like to date someone that wasn't Nathan now. That would just be too weird. "I guess I'll deal with that when someone asks me."

"So," Brooke began, a devilish smile coming to her face, on that Haley recognized immediately. "You're saying that if a guy, let's just say Skills for the sake of argument, asked you out, you wouldn't say yes?"

"Skills has nothing to do with this." Brooke and Peyton had been bugging her since Monday to give them the dirt on her relationship with Skills, but she refused to tell them anything. Pretty soon Brooke was going to have to resort to asking Lucas about it, and she was willing to do just that, she was so curious.

"You just keep telling yourself that, baby," Brooke teased. She had always noticed the interaction, dare she say flirting, between the two best friends, but she had never thought anything of it when Haley was dating Nathan. Now that they were both single and she knew of their past relationship, she was seeing it in a whole new light.

"Shut up, Brooke."

"My point is," Brooke got back to her topic, sensing that Haley wasn't receiving the teasing very well. "If you want to move on, you're gonna have to start dating, and as much as it may kill you and make me gag, you're also gonna have to start embracing the new girlfriend."

"I don't got a problem with a new girlfriend," Haley defended. Brooke looked doubtfully at her. "Seriously, bring her on. It's the fact that it's Nicki that makes me sick. I mean, is it even possible to be that skanky?"

"Yes," Brooke answered automatically. "Trust me, I would know." Haley rolled her eyes and looked at Brooke sternly.

"You're not skanky."

"I used to be," she corrected. Though, there was a part of her that thought she still must be, if Lucas didn't want her anymore. She shook her head, chasing that thought away. This wasn't about her; it was about Haley. "It's okay, though, I have embraced my skanky past."

"Well I don't know if I can embrace the skanky of the future."

"And I can respect that," Brooke agreed. Haley smiled at her in thanks, glad that she wasn't going to push her into not hating Nicki. Brooke hated seeing her best friend like this. As much as she tried to play it off like she didn't hurt, Brooke knew her better than that. "It'll get easier, Hales, I promise. Soon, when you look at him, or even think of him, you won't want to kill yourself. You'll be okay."

"I know I will," Haley whispered, closing her eyes tight, forcing the tears to stay where they were. She was not going to cry, especially since Nathan was going to be there any minute. She opened them to meet the concerned eyes of Brooke and smiled helplessly at her. "Thanks, though."

"Hey," Nathan interrupted from the door before Brooke had a chance to respond to her friend. The two girls quickly began to sit up on the bed. "Sorry I'm late. Matt didn't show up on time so Gary needed me to stay until he got there. I didn't have my phone with me."

"Whatever," Brooke dismissed him, being careful not to use her favorite new nickname for Haley's sake. "Let's just get this started shall we?"

"Hey, Nate," Haley greeted him softly, trying her best to look at his face, but avoid his eyes. She would never be able to hold herself together if she caught sight of his gorgeous blue eyes. They got her every single time.

"Hey, Haley," he greeted back, carefully not to look at Brooke. He could practically feel her hatred in the room. As much as of a pain in the ass her and Peyton's hatred could be, he had to admit that he was kind of glad that Haley had them looking out for her.

"We should probably move downstairs to work on this," Haley suggested, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the room. She noticed Brooke's death glare and she could clearly see that Nathan was quickly becoming uncomfortable with it.

"Okay," both Nathan and Brooke agreed at the same time. They looked at each other, equally upset that they actually agreed on something and started moving. Nathan left Haley's room without another word, already making his way to the living room.

"I want you to play nice," Haley warned her friend as they got off the bed and started to gather the things that they would need to work on the project. Brooke grabbed her bag and stood up straight, sending Haley an innocent smile.

"When am I not nice?" Haley clenched her jaw, eyeing Brooke, letting her know that she was being serious. The last thing that she needed was to be caught in the middle of a screaming match between Nathan and Brooke.

"Brooke."

"I'll be on my best behavior," Brooke promised herself, holding up her right hand in a sign of honor. "Girl Scout's Honor."

"You got kicked out of Girl Scouts for making out with the Den Mother's sixteen year old son."

"He was hot," Brooke answered with a shrug and moved towards the door and out of the room with Haley right behind her.

"You were thirteen." They burst out laughing at the story and Haley continued to tease her until they reached the living room to find Nathan seated comfortably in the leather reclining chair, looking quite at home. The girls calmed down and plopped themselves down on the couch. Once they were seated, Nathan decided that they should start talking about the reason they were there.

"So, which one of you did what?" he asked. Haley and Brooke looked at him like he was stupid. He looked confused for a moment until he remembered who he was talking to. "Right, of course. Brooke how was the movie?"

"I haven't watched it yet," she admitted, knowing that they were going to be angry with her. She had promised them that she was going to rent it and watch it before they got together so they could start figuring out the differences between the movie and the book.

"Brooke," Haley whined, not knowing why she was even surprised. She should have known. She loved Brooke to death, but she just wasn't the reliable type, at least not when it came to schoolwork, anyway.

"I'm sorry," she told her. "But I've been really busy getting ready for cheerleading tryouts and everything."

"That's not an excuse," Haley told her.

"Come on, Hales," Nathan cut in, not believing that he was actually doing this. "I think you should cut her some slack. I've seen how busy she's been all week in the gym with Peyton getting everything ready." Brooke and Haley both looked at him strangely, surprised that he was helping Brooke out.

"Thanks," Brooke threw at him quickly, not wanting him to think that she didn't hate him now. He needed to do a lot more than that to get back into her good graces. She turned back to Haley. "When's this whole thing due again?"

"Presentations start on Monday," Haley told her. "Alphabetical order, so depending on how long they are, we'll probably be going on the first day, Davis."

"Looks like we'll be busy this weekend then, huh?" Brooke tried to lighten the mood. She could tell by the look on Haley's face that she was not amused. "I should probably go get the movie so we can watch it tonight, shouldn't I?"

"I think that's a good idea." Brooke nodded, quickly scrambling to get off the couch and over to the door. She slipped on the closest shoes; not even checking to see if they were her's and jetted out the door, leaving Nathan and Haley alone.

"Looks like it's just us for a bit, then," Nathan pointed out. Haley jumped slightly at his voice, having actually forgotten that he was still there. She quickly whipped her head around to look at him. He had a slight smirk on his face.

She really should have thought this one through.

**---OTH---**

That's all. I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought. Peace.


	5. The More We Change, It All Seems Worse

_Author's Note_: Wow. Like you know, these chapters are already prewritten, and I just noticed how short these chapters are compared to the ones I write for INOS. Weird. Anywhoo, I've never liked this chapter. I'm not sure why, maybe because it's just so all over the place or something, but whatever. Nothing I can do about it now, right? I hope that you enjoy it anyway.

**---OTH---**

"That is complete crap, and you know it!"

It had only been fifteen minutes and Nathan and Haley were already in a screaming match. They had originally started talking about their classes for this year, discussing how things were going so far. Just like things always seemed to come to with them, they ended up getting into an argument. Haley knew that something like this was going to happen when Brooke walked out that door. There was just something that came over her when she was in Nathan's presence now; intense rage and passion. It didn't matter what they were talking about, and she didn't always act on it, but she could always feel it just under the surface.

"Oh, give me a break," he yelled back from his position at the end of the couch. He couldn't believe that she was saying this. There was no possible way that she could believe that. "You're not serious, are you?"

"You're damn right, I'm serious," she shouted, her eyes sending him daggers as she did.

"There is no way that Iverson is better than Jordan!" he finally exclaimed, getting more than frustrated with her constant need to disagree with him. Haley shook her head and flopped down on the couch.

"Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion," she finally answered, leaving the argument open if she felt the need to bring it back up. It wasn't like she gave a crap about basketball, she didn't even know who Iverson was. She just knew how much Nathan loved and worshiped the ground that 'MJ' walked on, so she couldn't help but bring it up, just to bother him. And just like she had planned, he fell right into it. "It's basic human rights."

"Not when they're as stupid as yours," Nathan mumbled. He knew exactly what she was doing, but he didn't care. Nobody messed with Jordan, nobody. He saw that Haley was finished with their yelling and let out a huge sigh, plopping back down in his seat.

"Whatever," she mumbled back. She glanced at him quickly before making a point of not looking at him by letting out a dramatic sigh and crossing her arms over her chest.

"So," he began, eyeing her to see if she was going to have another spaz attack. He was surprised that she hadn't starting laying into him about all the crap with Nicki or made some smart ass remark about how Lacy was coming along. Maybe she wasn't going to be as bitter about this as he thought. "What do you want to do?"

"Get a time machine," she answered, turning to look at him sharply. She wasn't angry before, but after their stupid basketball fight, she was full of energy and was perfectly willing to go another round with him about something that actually matter this time. "That way I can go back in time and never date you. Then maybe my life wouldn't be the big pile of shit it is now."

"I knew this was coming," he shot back. He knew that he had no right to get angry about the way she was acting because he was lucky that she wasn't kicking him in the balls right now, but he couldn't help but get defensive. That's how he was taught to deal with his problems. "I knew we couldn't have a civil conversation without you bringing that crap up and throwing it in my face."

"Throwing it in your face?" Haley couldn't believe her ears. Was he really trying to get pissy about her being pissy? That was such a load of BS. "You have some nerve, you jackass."

"I've told you I was sorry about a million times!" He just wanted to clamp his hand over his mouth. How could he possibly be saying something so stupid? Oh right, he was a Scott. You can never underestimate their power to be jerks. "What else do you want?"

"I want you to realize how stupid your mistakes were," Haley told him, her voice steady. You'd never be able to tell that she was fighting back tears. "I want you to know how much your mistakes hurt me."

"I know," he shot back. "I was there. I saw your face when I broke up with you, and when you called me on the Lacy thing. And I saw you in the hospital after I made yet another mistake by bringing Nicki up to Brooke's cabin."

"You have no idea." Haley shook her head. She knew that Nathan could be a little brain dead sometimes, he was a Scott after all, but she honestly didn't think that anybody could be so stupid and insensitive to say the things he was saying, it was horrible. "You don't know anything about what I went through, about what I'm going through."

"I want to know," Nathan told her. He started to shift over, to get closer to her, but stopped in his seat the moment she looked at him. "I want to know how you're feeling. I want you to tell me what you felt when you found out about everything."

"You don't want to know," she corrected. "And I don't want to tell you. I can't keep living it over and over again, I just can't." Nathan nodded and looked down at his lap. "This summer was the worst two and half months of my entire life and if I could, I'd erase them from my memory, but I can't, I have to live with them for the rest of my life."

"I do too," he added, against his better judgment. "I know it may seem hard to believe, but everything that happened, hurt me too, you know?"

"Oh, really?" Haley bit out sarcastically. "Which part hurt more? The part where you screwed Lacy's brains out, the part where you brought some slut up to Brooke's cabin to flaunt in my face a week after we broke up, or the part were you got my best friends to help you cheat on me?"

"I'm back," Brooke exclaimed as she came skidding into the house. She had her arms full, movie and snacks in both, as she tried to catch her breath. She bumped the door shut with her ass and came further into the room. "I ran all the way there cause I thought that driving was pointless since it's just around the corner."

"It's around the block, not the corner," Haley pointed out, with a laugh. It was weird how she could go from being pissed off beyond reason at Nathan to being amused at Brooke.

"Yeah, thanks Tips," Brooke told her, still trying to catch her breath. She slipped off her shoes, kicking them over to where the other ones were and moved into the living room, not sensing the tension between Nathan and Haley. "Turns out that around the corner and around the block are two totally different things."

"You're a bright one," Haley laughed, eyeing Nathan to make sure that he didn't say anything. She wasn't sure what was going through his mind, but she could see the red still on his cheeks from their argument and she was surprised that Brooke hadn't noticed it yet and called him on it. "But you got it right?"

"Yeah, and snacks," she cheered, wiggling her eyebrows and holding up the bags that she had brought. "I got plain for you cause they're your favorite, some candy because I'm just the sweetest and a bag of Cheetos for Nathan cause I know how much he loves that crap."

"Thanks," he mumbled when the bag was thrown at him. He looked at Haley, saddened to find that she wouldn't even look at him. He was even starting to make some kind of progress with her too, and then he had to go and make such jackass comments. Good job, Nate, good job.

"So," Brooke started, looking between the two. She could tell that she had missed something and she was dying to know what. But she didn't bother questioning them now, knowing that she'd get it out of Haley later, when Dick Head wasn't there. "We watching the movie or what?"

"Sure," Haley sighed, nodding towards the television. "Pop it in." She nodded and pushed herself off the couch and moving over to the TV. With Brooke occupied, Nathan took the opportunity try to apologize to Haley.

"Look, Hales," he started in a whisper. He stopped when she sent him a death glare.

"Not now," she hissed at him. "Not ever." He sent her a pleading look that she ignored. She had given him a chance, one that he didn't even deserve in the first place, and he screwed it up.

"Sorry," he sighed under his breath. Haley heard him, but ignored it, turning her attention over to Brooke, who was currently trying to set up the VCR.

**---OTH---**

"So," Brooke immediately began as soon as she heard the front door close, signaling that Nathan had left the house. "What happened when I was gone?"

"What do you think happened, Tigger?" Haley sighed, crumpling up the bag of chips and tossing them on the glass table in front of her.

"You guys made sweet sweet love?"

"We got into a screaming match," Haley told her, completely ignoring the stupid comment Brooke made. "I don't even remember how it started, the only thing I remember was the screaming, there was definitely screaming."

"Well that's to be expected," Brooke waved off, tugging her legs underneath her and settling back down on the couch. She turned to face her best friend sitting on the other end of the couch. "But what kind of screaming was it?"

"The loud kind?" Haley guessed, eyeing the other brunette, knowing that she would never understand half of things that went on in that pretty little head of her's. "There's more than one kind of screaming?"

"Was it the pissed off kind of screaming?" she started, silently placing her money on that one. "Or the hot, passionate screaming that you two used to do all the time before we found you making out in the corner of the room?"

"Definitely the first one," Haley sighed, wishing that it had been the latter, that kind of screaming she knew how to deal with. "I've never wanted to rip his head off more. He was being such an ass about everything that happened."

"What did he say?"

"He was just being a typical male Scott," Haley told her and she rolled her eyes at the words. Brooke knew what that was all about. "He said that I kept throwing the whole summer in his face, like it was some little screw up that I needed to forget about."

"What a jerk," was all Brooke had to say. There wasn't much else to say, she had expected that exact thing when she left. She may not know Nathan that well, but she knew how his brother's mind worked, and she didn't imagine that his was any different.

"And then he had the nerve to say that the entire thing hurt him too!"

"Typical male," Brooke mumbled, shaking her head. Before she could start off on her regular anti-Nathan rant, the ringing of the phone cut her off.

"I swear to God, if that's Nathan," Haley muttered as she leaned forward to grab the phone. She smiled when she saw the ID and pressed talk. "Hey, dawg."

"Hales, I love you to death and beyond." Skills started with a laugh. "But you have got to be the whitest girl I've ever meet."

"Sorry," Haley laughed, pushing Brooke off of her when she tried to get closer to hear the conversation. "I'll have to remember that. So, what's up?"

"I just got home from the Rivercourt," he began to explain, leaning back on his bed and resting his head on his pillow. "I remembered that it was Thursday and that your big cheerleading tryout is tomorrow."

"Oh, God," she groaned, completely forgetting about that. "Please don't remind me. I was already dreading that enough as it was."

"You'll do great, girl," he assured her, smiling as she groaned again. "I've seen you dance, and you've got some serious moves."

"For a white girl, right?"

"For any girl," he corrected with a laugh. "You'll be the hottest one out there."

"Better not tell Brooke and Peyton that." She smirked when she saw Brooke's ears perk up at the mention of her name.

"Better not tell Brooke what?"

"They know it too." He shook his head when he heard Brooke in the background. He didn't know the girl that well, but he knew that she was a really good friend to Haley and that's all he needed to know. "Anyway, I just wanted to call and tell you to get a good night sleep and not to worry about it too much. I know you'll do great."

"Thanks, Skills." She couldn't believe that she forgot what a sweetie he could be.

"No problem, baby," he told her in his smoothest voice possible. "I'll see you tomorrow at school. Love ya, girlie."

"Love you, too," she laughed, trying to remember when he started to get so lovey dovey as she hung up. She shook her head and tossed the phone back onto the chair beside the couch and turned back around to be greeted with Brooke's smiling face. "What?"

"Haley and Skills," she began in a singsong voice and Haley groaned, knowing exactly where this was going. "Sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g."

"Stop it," Haley told her, quickly getting off the couch and gathering their garbage and moving into the kitchen. She rolled her eyes as Brooke continued to shout the song to her.

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes babies in a baby carriage!"

"Brooke, shut up," she scolded her. She didn't need to hear this right now.

"Haley loves Skills!"

"I'm going to bed," Haley told her, knowing that Brooke would follow her up to her room. They hadn't made any plans to have a sleepover, but that was just the way things went with them. If they were at each other's houses later than ten o'clock, they were staying over. Brooke would just wear some of Haley's clothes to school tomorrow.

"What did he what?" Brooke asked, doing just as Haley knew she would do, and following her up to her room, turning off all the lights on the way up. They entered Haley's room and didn't waste anytime starting to get changed into their pajamas.

"To wish me good luck tomorrow," Haley told her quickly as she slipped her top on over her head. She heard Brooke squeal and start to clap.

"Aw, that's so cute," she cheered, smiling from ear to ear. She pulled on her pants and moved over to the bed. "You two are just so adorable together. You guys have to start dating again."

"I'm not dating anyone," Haley told her, pulling back the covers for them to get. They both slid into their sides and got comfortable. "Especially not Skills."

"Why not?" Brooke asked as Haley turned off the lights, leaving them in darkness. She couldn't see Haley, but she could feel and hear her shifting around beside her.

"We're best friends," Haley answered back, her voice not as loud as before. "I would never want to ruin that, he means too much to me."

"There's more," Brooke stated. "I know there is."

"Nathan was always jealous of our friendship," Haley admitted. "Lucas he didn't mind, because he was with you and he knew that Luke would never do that to him, but with Skills, it was different. It might have been because he knew we used to date, that he was my first kiss."

"Aw, Skills was your first kiss?" Brooke gushed, finding them even more adorable with everything she heard. "He was good, wasn't he?"

"I couldn't do that," Haley continued, once again ignoring Brooke. "It would seem like I'm doing it just to hurt Nathan. I wouldn't want to do that to him or Skills."

"But that wouldn't be why you're doing it," Brooke pointed out. She heard Haley open her mouth and then close it again. She smiled in victory.

"Good night, Brooke."

"Night, Hales."

**---OTH---**

See? Nothing special. Oh well. Hope you liked it. Only one more prewritten chapter left and then I'll have to start writing this again. Yay! Another story I have to write. Oh well, it's my fault anyway. Please, please tell me what you think. Thanks. Laterz, yo!


	6. The Fragments of A Reason

_Author's Note:_ For the record, I swear that I had planned on posting this earlier, and I completely forgot about it. I don't even think anyone cares, but if you do, I'm sorry it took so long for me to update. This is the last prewritten chapter, so it might be a while before I get around to writing something else. Anyway, enjoy and please tell me what you think.

**---OTH---**

"This is like my favorite day of the whole year!"

Unknown to Haley, Brooke had set her alarm clock to wake them up at 4 o'clock that morning, so they could go for a run. After a half an hour of trying to get Haley up, Brooke finally just grabbed Haley by the hair and pulled her up. And, after kicking the crap out of Brooke for doing that, Haley begrudgingly had a shower and got changed into the closest thing she had to work out clothes and they went on their run.

"Well so far, mine's pretty crappy," Haley commented as she attempted to keep up with the ever-energized Brooke. She loved Brooke, she did, but she had to contain the urge to push Brooke under one of the passing cars more than a few times on their journey.

"Oh, you'll get used to it," Brooke promised her, not breaking a stride as she turned around and started to jog backwards so she could look at Haley as she was talking to her. She shook her head as she watched Haley struggle along, her breathing get unsteadier by the second. "You're pathetic, James."

"What do you expect?" Haley asked, swallowing a few times before she could continue. "I almost failed Phys. Ed last year, and I've never once gone out running in my entire life."

"How are you so hot then?" Brooke asked, decided to cut Haley some slack and started to slow her pace a little bit. Haley let out a small sigh of relief when she saw Brooke was slowing down. She just couldn't take this. "I mean, you've practically got a better body then I do, and I go running almost every morning during the school year, not to mention all the work out I get from cheerleading."

"Runs in the family," was the only answer Haley could offer. Luke had always bugged her about her ability to stay in great shape when she hardly did anything to stay that way, other than not pig out on junk food that often. "Brad and Trent were always able to stay in shape somehow, and Vivian and Quinn would never do anything but yoga in fear of breaking a nail. Taylor's the only one of us that actually does something to keep her body. She goes running all the time, not to mention all the sex she likes to have with strangers."

"Oh yeah, that really burns off the calories," Brooke nodded, remembering her slutty days with a kind of fond smile. She missed it sometimes, especially now that she was single, but she didn't want to go back to that. She hated the feeling she used to get the next morning when she woke up next to someone she didn't know.

"I wouldn't know," Haley mumbled, taking another few steps before stopping. "Okay, that's it." She bent down and rested her hands on her knees, inhaling heavily, trying to get her breathing even again. Brooke stopped moving backwards, but continued to run on the spot for a few minutes, waiting for her best friend to catch her breath. After a few moments, Haley stood up straight, but instead of continuing on, she limped over to the bench that was a couple feet back and plopped herself down on it.

"Hales," Brooke whined, bringing her jogging to a halt. She let out a sigh when she saw that Haley wasn't going to be able to make and started to make her way over to join the other brunette on the bench. "You aren't going to last a week on the squad if you can't even run three miles."

"I doubt that," Haley answered, taking on last deep breath before leaning back on the bench, resting her weight on Brooke. "I just need to get used to it, you know? I think you should start me off with half a mile first. I'll work up to three miles."

"If you say so." Brooke was starting to doubt Haley's ability to last on the squad after all. Oh well, she was going to pick Haley either way, she was her best friend after all. Maybe she could carry their pom poms or something. If worse comes to worse, Brooke was very confident in Haley's abilities to sit there and look pretty.

"I can do it," Haley promised, pushing herself off of Brooke's shoulder and nodding her head, confidently. "I'm Tutor Girl, I can do anything, remember?"

"Tutor Girl, you can't even run a mile," Brooke teased, shaking her head in amusement at just how tired Haley really did look. Haley glared at her as she pushed some hair out of her face, scrunching up her nose when she felt it sticking to her forehead. She hated to sweat, which is why she avoided any physical activity. "Okay, let's get you home."

"I need another shower."

"Yes, yes you do," Brooke teased her. Ignoring the glare she received for her efforts, she stood up and held out her hand for Haley to take. Haley took it gratefully and stood up, trying her best to ignore the shooting pains in her legs. She really was sad. "Come on, after you're showered, we should have time to go over the routine a couple times before we have to leave for school."

"What routine?" she asked, leaning onto Brooke as she limped along.

"The one for tryouts today," Brooke informed her, rolling her eyes at the fact that Haley couldn't even walk now. "Me and Pey do the routine once, then go over it a couple times with the girls, and then they have to do it for us. That's what we base our decision on; their ability to learn a routine quickly."

"Then why are we going over it at my house?" Haley questioned, not understanding what Brooke was getting at. Was Brooke suggesting what she thought she was suggested? Because if so, that would not be acceptable.

"Even though you're already on the squad, I think it'd be best if we at least make it look like your auditioning," Brooke answered, not realizing that Haley might not be comfortable with this little set up that she had already decided on. "You know, so the other girls don't think it's unfair or anything."

"I'm already on the squad?" Haley repeated. Brooke nodded her head and smiled brightly at her.

"Of course."

"But you haven't even seen me do anything," Haley pointed out. Sure, she didn't want to be one the squad in the first place, but she certainly didn't want to get on it this way. She'd never had anything handed to her before; she wasn't going to start now. "What could you possibly base this on?"

"Besides the fact that your two best friends are caption and assistant caption?"

"Tigger!"

"Come on, Hales," Brooke whined. She should have known that Haley wasn't going to let this slip by her. "You've got connections, you don't need to try out. That would be like Britney Spears getting a credit check before she bought a house, it's just not necessary."

"Brooke, I don't want special treatment," Haley told her, making sure that the other girl understood her completely. She saw Brooke give her a 'yeah, yeah' nod and she tugged on her arm. "You hear me! If I make it, it's because I was good, alright!"

"Okay, fine," she grumbled. Brooke just prayed Haley didn't make a fool of herself this afternoon. Haley smiled in thanks and they continued to walk down the path towards Haley's house.

**---OTH---**

"Hey, Haley," came the voice from around the corner. Haley immediately stopped her movements towards the gym at the sound. She slowly backed up to where the voice had come from. She rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh when she spotted Nathan standing around the corner in his practice jersey.

"What do you want Nathan?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him expectantly. She eyed him strangely, trying to figure out why she was practically hiding. "What are you doing? Why are you hiding around the corner?"

"Brooke's in the gym," he answered, tentatively leaned over to peek around the corner to the gym doors. When he saw a cheerleader open them, he quickly pulled back, afraid it was Brooke. He let out a sigh when he saw Bevin walk by him. Haley watched him with a raised eyebrow, confused at his actions.

"Yeah, so?" Haley answered, her confusion clearly evident in her voice. "It's cheerleading tryouts."

"She was giving me cut eye all English class," he answered, his eyes darting around the hallway for any sight of the girl. He felt like a loser, but he was scared. Brooke may be small, but he'd seen what she'd done to Tim before, he did not want to meet such a fate. "Did you tell her about what happened last night when she was gone?"

"Of course I did," Haley nodded, a smile on her face. She was still angry about last night, but the almost terrified look on his face was too amusing to ignore. "I thought you were being an ass, therefore I shared with Brooke. You had to know that she was going to press me for details the minute you left."

"Yeah, about that," he started, relaxing a little bit. He stopped looking around the hallway, not worried about Brooke anymore, and focused all his attention on the girl in front of him, the one that he needed to say a few things to. "Haley, I'm really sorry."

"It's alright, Nathan," Haley began. She was still hurt at Nathan's attitude about their breakup from the night before, but she really didn't want to have this conversation in the middle of the hallway, especially with all those cheerleaders walking by, they were sure to overhear and spread it around the school by tomorrow.

"No, Haley, it's not," he insisted, his face softening at her understanding tone. He hated that she was acting like this. Not once since they had broken up had she been bitter about anything. A really big part of him just wanted her to scream or hit him. When she was so nice to him all the time, it just made him feel worse about everything. "I had no right acting like that, saying those things to you."

"No, you didn't," she immediately agreed, some of the angry she felt last night returning. "But I think that after everything you've done this past summer, what happened last night is the least of our worries."

"Okay, I deserved that," he muttered, though he was a little relieved at the angry in her voice. He could deal with angry, he understood that, he deserved to be treated like that, and not the nice way Haley had been acting towards him lately.

"Yep, you did," she shot back. She saw the slight flinch he made at the comment and let out a breath. No, she wasn't going to do this here. "Look, I except your apology, okay? You didn't mean it."

"I wasn't lying when I said that I was hurting too," he replied, approaching the subject casually. She didn't exactly respond warmly to this conversation last night and the last thing he wanted was a reenactment of their argument in the middle of the hallway. "It kills me to see you everyday, knowing all the pain that I caused you. It's like a slap in the face everytime I realize that I can't wrap my arms around you…"

"Well, you know what, Nathan?" Haley cut him, already tired of this conversation. She didn't doubt that he regretted everything that happened, but wishing didn't change what he did. And she absolutely refused to feel any sympathy towards him. "You made your bed, and now you have to lay in it."

"I know, I know," he quickly nodded, looking down at the ground. He didn't want her to think that he was trying to get some kind of sympathy. "I just wanted you to…"

"Ahhhh!" His head snapped up at Haley's squeal to find Haley being lifted into the air by someone. He watched in confusion as she started to laugh. "Put me down, put me down!"

"Alright, sorry," Skills laughed, amused at her reaction. He immediately dropped her, pulling back and laughing harder when she started to smack him. "Sorry, sorry, I was just goofing around."

"You scared the crap out of me!" she scolded him, hitting him one more time for good measure before letting up. She was so caught up with the excitement of what just happened that she forgot all about Nathan standing until he cleared his throat, clearly annoyed at being ignored. "Oh, uh, right…"

"Oh, hey, Nathan," Skills greeted him, nervously. He wasn't aware that they were in the middle of a conversation when he attacked Haley. All he could see when he exited the gym was Haley standing at the corner. "I didn't realize you guys were talking."

"Yeah, well we are," he snapped, sending Skills an icy glare. He had never liked the way those two acted around each other, they were always so touchy feely, and it drove him nuts. Especially when Lucas told him that they used to go out. He hated feeling jealous, it made him feel so pathetic.

"Nathan!" Haley hissed, not believing that he was being so rude to her best friend. He had no right to act so childish, especially when he was trying to get her forgiveness.

"It's okay, Hales," Skills told her, tearing his eyes off Nathan and choosing to devote his entire attention on Haley. He didn't really care what Nathan had to say to him. He never liked Nathan, and right now he was finding it really hard not to beat on the guy for what he had done to his little buddy. "Brooke just sent me out here to look for you."

"Oh, are they starting already?" Haley asked, the nervousness seeping into her voice at the mere thought of what she was about to do. Skills nodded, sending her a sympathetic smile, knowing how freaked out she was. But he knew that she was going to blow them away, he knew what an amazing dancer Haley was, she could kick all their little freshmen asses. "Crap, I still need to change."

"Change for what?" Nathan asked. He had forgotten all about his annoyance at Skills' presence and latched onto their last comments. What the hell were they talking about? Oh, no.

"Skills," Haley asked, eyeing Nathan before turning to her old friend. She had forgotten how Nathan felt about her being a cheerleader. "Could you go tell Brooke that I'll be there in a couple minutes?"

"Yeah, sure thing, babe," he nodded, starting to back up. "And don't sweat it, I know you'll do great. You've totally got rhythm."

"For a white girl, right?" Haley laughed when Skills broke into a smile.

"You know me too well," he laughed. He shook his head and pushed the gym doors open. "I'll see you inside. Later."

"Bye," Haley laughed, watching after him for a second before she turned back to Nathan. She had forgotten how much she loved goofing around with Skills. She had really missed him this summer.

"What was that?" Nathan demanded, the moment Haley turned back to him. He tried to ignore the lingering smile on her face. He didn't want to think about that right now. Just thinking about Haley and Skills together was enough to make him want to rip his eyes out. "Please tell me that you two weren't talking about what I think you were talking about."

"We probably were," she shot at him, still angry at his behavior towards Skills. That had been totally uncalled for; he had no idea they were in the middle of a conversation. If he had known, he never would have interrupted them. "I'm trying out for cheerleading."

"What?" Nathan groaned. This was not good. Not only did he always like the fact that Haley wasn't a cheerleader, now that they were broken up, he didn't know if he could handle seeing her everyday, dancing around the gym in a mini skirt when he was trying to practice. "Why? You told Brooke that you'd never try out."

"I went to Susan and she said that if I wanted to get early admissions to any good colleges, I needed an extra curricular activity." She hadn't planned on telling anyone about her plans to leave early, but it just sort of came out, and she didn't really feel the need to hide it from him. It was because of him that she wanted to leave after all.

"Early admissions?" he repeated, his heart clenching at the thought alone. She couldn't leave early; he needed her there. Even if they weren't together and she never wanted to talk to him again, he didn't think he could handle not being able to see her everyday.

"I can't take this, Nathan," she breathed out, running a hand through her hair. She couldn't look up at his face because she knew that his eyes would just kill her. "Being here, seeing you all the time…I just want to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Haley, I…"

"Tutor Girl!" Brooke screamed from the door. Haley jumped at the voice and turned towards her best friend to find her waving a pom pom at her. "Get your ass moving! We're waiting for you!" Haley nodded and the usually bubbly brunette disappeared. She had forgotten about the Cheer Nazi.

"I have to go," Haley told Nathan, helplessly. He watched her move towards the gym. "Could you not tell anyone about this? I don't want the others to know that I'm looking into this, okay?"

"Um, yeah," he stuttered, still having a hard time wrapping his head and his heart around all of it. Haley was leaving? She couldn't leave, she just couldn't. "Sure."

"Thanks." With one last nodded and sad smile, Haley pushed open the gym doors and disappeared from his sight.

**---OTH---**

"Alright," Brooke cheered as her and Peyton finished doing their extremely complicated cheer for all the girls standing in front of them. "Did everyone get that?" She turned around to see almost every girl standing there slack jawed and wide eyed.

"Don't worry," Peyton laughed, seeing their shocked faces. She glanced at Haley and was surprised to find that she looked strangely calm. "We're gonna go over it a few times with you guys before we make you guys do it for us solo." A collective sigh was heard around the gym.

Brooke and Peyton had all the girls spread out in their end of the gym, so they could go over the complicated routine slowly, step by step. They went over it as a group for twenty minutes, not including the interruptions that came in the form of Whitey yelling at the boys to pay attention to their practice, before Brooke stopped them.

"Okay, girls," she clapped, motioning for them to come closer. "We're going to give you all half an hour to practice amongst yourself. Feel free to go anywhere to work it out. You can do it in partners, in groups or all together for all I care, just work on it until I tell you it's time," she instructed. "Everyone got that?"

"Yeah," they all replied. Brooke shooed them away, and she and Peyton made their way over to the table that they had set up for auditions. Once all the girls had moved around and partnered up, Haley sauntered over to join her best friends.

"Hey, Pey," Haley greeted, giving the blonde a warm smile. She glanced at Brooke and winked. "Madam Cheer Nazi."

"Come on, Hales," Brooke whined. "I'm not _that _bad." Haley and Peyton shared a look and laughed.

"Yeah," Peyton agreed with another chuckle. "You kinda are."

"It gets the job done, doesn't it?" Brooke asked, daring them to say that she was a bad caption. Fine, she could be a bitch when it came to the squad, and she would admit that, but she did it for the good of the squad, and no one could convince her otherwise.

"Can't argue with you there," Peyton nodded, patting Brooke on the knee to make her feel better. While most of the girls on the squad were terrified of the Cheer Nazi, Peyton just found her to be amusing, and made an extra effort to piss her off, just to see her hysterical reaction.

"You got everything down, Tutor Girl?" Brooke questioned, wanting to get the conversation off of her. She meant to watch how Haley was doing during the review, but she had forgotten to keep an eye on her. She was really excited about the idea of having Haley on the squad with them this year, and she would be very disappointed if Haley ended up sucking. "We weren't too hard to follow?"

"I think I'm good," she smiled at them. Skills had been right earlier when he said that she was a good dancer. Not many people knew that about her, but she was pretty good, if she did say so herself. She may not be very well coordinated, but when it came to dancing, it seemed that her feet just moved all on their own. It was one of the few physical things she was actually good at.

"You want to practice it with us?" Peyton asked, moving to stand up. She stopped when Haley shook her head and jumped off the table.

"Nah," she decided, sending them a confidant smile. She had been nervous as hell before, but after what Skills had said, she was surer of herself. She never really thought of cheerleading as dancing, but now that she thought about it, that's exactly what it was. And she could dance, so all should be good. Not to mention that after years of being Tutor Girl, she had a pretty good memory. "The boys are on a break, so I'll go drag Skills outside and see what he thinks."

"That sounds like a great idea," Brooke immediately exclaimed, a suggestive smile on her face. Haley rolled her eyes at the girl before throwing a quick goodbye to Peyton and skipping over to Skills.

"What was that all about?" Peyton questioned Brooke when Haley was out of earshot. She knew Brooke was up to something; she always was after all. Oh well, at least this should keep her mind off of a sexy looking Jake who was sitting on the other side of the gym. Brooke just smiled at her. "What are you up to?"

"Why, P. Sawyer, why would you ever think that I'm up to something?" Brooke asked, faking her innocence and holding a hand to her heart in fake shock. Peyton just gave her a doubtful look and Brooke broke. "Haley and Skills are totally meant to be!"

"Brooke," Peyton groaned, not knowing why she was even surprised.

"What?"

"Would you just leave the poor girl alone?" she begged, throwing her head back and letting out a sigh. She knew that Brooke meant well, but encouraging Haley to go after Skills right now, was pretty much the last thing she needed. "She just broke up with her boyfriend of two years, give her a while to get over it. Jesus."

"Come on, Pey," Brooke whined, not liking the blonde's attitude at all. "Just look at them, they're adorable together." They watched as Haley slid onto Skills' lap and wrapped her arms around his neck to whisper something in his ear. He nodded to whatever it was that she said, and stood up, shifting Haley's body so he could throw her over his shoulder and carried her outside, which had Haley in hysterics, begging him to let her down. "Aww! Tell me they aren't perfect for each other."

"I'll admit, they're adorable," Peyton agreed with a smile as she watched the scene in front of her, not missing the fact that an extremely pissed off Nathan was watching them as well. She had always thought Haley and Skills had a cute relationship, but she honestly could never picture Haley with anyone other than Nathan. Even after everything that had happened over the summer, she didn't think there was anyone else for Haley but Nathan. Just like there was no one else for her but Jake. "They always have been, but I just don't think that Haley needs to be diving into a new relationship right away."

"But, Peyton…"

"Just let them be," Peyton warn, giving her a stern look. Brooke was about to open her mouth and Peyton pointed her finger at her to keep her quiet. "Just let them be and see what happens. Okay?"

"Fine," Brooke grumbled, folding her arms across her chest and pouting. "You used to be fun. What happened to you?"

"Life," Peyton answered simply, her eyes wandering to where Jake was sitting on the bleachers, looking miserable, while he talked to an equally miserable Lucas.

"Life sucks," Brooke replied, following her gaze to stare at Lucas. Peyton grunted in agreement. They sat there and moped until it was time for performances. That would definitely brighten their moods.

**---OTH---**

"I still can't believe it," Brooke laughed as she slammed her car door shut. "I had no idea you could shake your ass so well, Tutor Girl!"

"Yeah, Hales," Peyton agreed, linking arms with Haley as they made their way up Haley's walkway, all three decked out in their brand new blue Raven's cheerleading uniforms. "You've got some serious moves."

"Thanks, guys," she replied bashfully, getting embarrassed by all the compliments they kept giving her. While most of the other girls completely blew their routines, Haley had nailed her perfectly, getting every single move exactly right and in perfect time, surprising the hell out of both Brooke and Peyton. "It wasn't half bad. I might just like this cheerleading business."

"This year is going to be so much fun!" Brooke cheered, as Haley unlocked her front door and they made their way inside the small house. Haley's house was probably the smallest out of all three of theirs, but they tended to spend a lot of time there for some reason.

"Yeah," Peyton agreed, following the other two up the stairs. "It'll be us three girls, together. Who needs those smelly boys, right?"

"Right," both Brooke and Haley responded, trying their best to sound optimistic about what their blonde friend was saying. They didn't really think that they'd be able to just forget about their ex-boyfriends, but they were going to try their best.

"Come on, girls," Peyton scolded, hoping to ignite some cheer from her fellow cheerleaders. How was she supposed to forget about Jake and all the pain that came with him, if Brooke and Haley were moping about Nathan and Lucas? "I don't want to hear that. We're young, we're hot as hell, and we're cheerleaders."

"Yeah," Haley agreed. She knew that Peyton didn't really believe what she was saying, but if the blonde could pretend, then so could she. She didn't want to be thinking about Nathan anyway. "Just look on the bright side; after all the drama that went down this summer, there isn't anything that could possibly make matters worse…"

Haley trailed off as she opened her bedroom door. She stopped her movements as soon as she spotted the familiar figure sitting on her bed, apparently waiting for her to return. Brooke and Peyton took at the figure in confusion, not knowing who it was, or why Haley was so surprised to see her.

"Hey, Haley-bub," she greeted with smile, clearly pleased with Haley's reaction to her presence. "Long time no see, huh?" Haley sighed.

Taylor.

**---OTH---**

Okay, that's it. I know, there's a lot of scenes and they're all kind of random. Oh well. Please tell me what you guys think. Peace.


	7. Small Town Life Has Had Its Way

_Author's Note_: Okay, so I've had this done for like two weeks now, and I kinda just forgot to post it, so after a gentle reminder from Sandy, I figured I might as well update now. Nothing much to say about this chapter. I don't think I like it that much, but I just want to get this story into the good part, so I'mnot too worried about it. Hope you guys like this chapter, please review!

**--OTH--**

"Who's the ho?"

Haley had to suppress a laugh at the comment. She knew she could count on Brooke to make awkward moments less so. She could tell by the look on Taylor's face that she wasn't amused by the comment, nor did she seem to like Brooke. Haley wasn't surprised though; she knew that if they ever did meet that they wouldn't get along. They're too alike, same perky personality, same overactive sex drive, and the same desire to cause as much trouble as humanly possible. Not to mention that they both had some kind of sick obsession with trying to get Haley to come over to the dark side with them, while still being insanely overprotective of her. She had hoped that the two would never have to cross paths, mostly because it spelt doom for her, but given the lovely way that Brooke had decided to start their beautiful relationship, it was going to be even worse than she thought it would be.

"You don't know your own name?" Taylor asked in an amused tone, smirking at the brunette girl that she already hated. "Well, you're a cheerleader, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, huh?"

"Okay," Haley stated calmly, sending Brooke a warning look before she could say anything. Brooke knew better than to ignore that kind of look and decided to just glare at the blonde instead. "Let's not get into a bitch contest before you even know each other's names."

"Fine," both Brooke and Taylor mumbled at the same time, much to Peyton's amusement. There weren't many people that were willing to match Brooke jab for jab in the bitch department, but she could tell already that this girl was going to be different. It looked like Brooke might have finally met her match. This was going to be entertaining.

"Thank you," Haley told them; rolling her eyes when she noticed they were both sporting the same pout at her request. She wondered if they realized they were exactly the same or not, and if that just made them hate the other even more.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Haley-bub?" Taylor asked, closing the notebook she had been reading and tossing it onto the bed beside her. "Aren't you going to introduce me to the cheer squad?"

"Taylor," Haley bit out, glaring at her sister, knowing that she was going to have a ball teasing her about being a cheerleader. "This is Peyton and this is Brooke, they're my best friends."

"What happened to Lucas and Skills?" Taylor asked, forgetting about her hate for Brooke for the moment. Last time she had checked, which really wasn't that long ago, her baby sister and the boys were attached at the hip. "Did you ditch them for the Mean Girls?"

"Two of my best friends," Haley corrected her, realizing her mistake. She just realized how many best friends she had. There was Lucas, Skills, Peyton and Brooke. That was a lot, considering most girls only had one or two. "I'm still best friends with the guys."

"Oh, good," Taylor smiled, glad to know that everything hadn't changed completely since she had left. She couldn't imagine Haley not being friends with Lucas and Skills, it just wouldn't seem right, considering how close the three of them used to be. "Cause last time I was home, they were looking pretty hot. I know you've always had a thing for Skills, so maybe I'll just go for Lukie."

Haley and Peyton both reached out and grabbed a hold of Brooke's arms before she could lunge at Taylor for her comment. Taylor watched in confusion for a moment before it dawned on her.

"Oh, are you and Scotty going out?" Taylor questioned innocently. Brooke glared at her best friends for a moment, telling them that they needed to let go, which they did. "Aw, are you his little girlfriend?"

"Ex-girlfriend," Brooke gritted out, ignoring the slight pain that shot to her heart at the words. She hated thinking of herself as Luke's ex-girlfriend. She didn't think she would ever have to refer to herself as that again. Taylor let out a laugh at the way she was acting.

"Then he's free for the taking, honey," she teased, hoping to get another rise out of the brunette. She didn't know who she was, but she knew that she didn't want her baby sister hanging out with her. Taylor James didn't like cheerleaders, didn't like them when she went to high school, and she certainly didn't like them hanging around her little sister.

"Tay," Haley warned, knowing that Brooke didn't have the best self control in the world. Taylor looked at her sister, giving her a 'come on' look, before rolling her eyes when she realized that she wasn't kidding around.

"Who are you, again?" Peyton asked, speaking for the first time since they entered the room. She could tell that Haley was at a lost as to what to do with the two of them, and she figured she could help her friend out by taking charge of the situation. "All I caught was Taylor."

"Right. James," she smirked. "Taylor James." She just nodded at them, deciding that it was too much energy to get up to shake their hands, not that she wanted to anyway.

"James?" Peyton and Brooke asked at the same time. They both looked at their best friend and then back at the hot bitchy blonde sitting on the bed. There was no way; they were so completely different.

"Yep," she smiled brightly at them, knowing exactly what they were thinking. It was the same thing that everyone else thought when they first met her. Haley was the perfect angel of them family, she was the complete screw up. "I'm the proud big sister of that brat."

"Aw," Haley gushed sarcastically, holding a hand to her heart. "The love in this room is really overwhelming." Taylor scoffed at her, more than used to her sister's overdramatic attitude.

"Oh, shut up, Hay," she laughed, surprised at just how much she missed saying those words, how much she missed Haley. "You know my love for you really is overwhelming."

"I can barely breathe," she deadpanned, not being able to hold the smirk back when she saw the goofy grin on her big sister's face. This always happened; no matter how much she wanted to be angry with Taylor, she could never stay mad at her for very long.

"Well," Peyton began, smiling at the two sisters bantering back and forth. She could never imagine Haley as a little sister before, she was always so mature, but just seeing her with Taylor for a couple of minutes, it was clear that Haley could easily be an annoying little sister. "We'll just leave the two of you alone to catch up."

"But we were gonna celebrate…" Brooke began to protest, not liking the idea of her Haley time being lost because the prodigal sister decided to return out of nowhere.

"Come on, Brookie," Peyton cut her off, grabbing her arm and dragging her towards the door. Haley could tell that Brooke was not a happy camper at all. She wasn't sure if she was sad that they weren't going to be hanging out together like planned or just pissed that she lost to Taylor.

"I'll call you later tonight, Tigger," Haley promised her, hoping it would make Brooke feel a little better.

"You better, Tutor Girl," Brooke threatened, sending her one last wave before she was pulled completely out of Haley room, making sure to pull the door shut behind her, leaving the sisters alone in the room.

"You could have been nicer, you know?" Haley scolded her, the minute she heard the front door close. Taylor rolled her eyes once again, used to getting yelled at by Haley for her behavior. "She's my best friend."

"Yeah right," Taylor scoffed, dismissing her comment with a wave of her hand. "Like I'm supposed to believe that you suddenly became BFFs with the head cheerleaders over night?"

"We've been best friends for almost two years now," Haley corrected her. It wasn't until just then that she realized how long it had been since she had seen her big sister. She had tried calling her a few times, but Taylor roommate had always told her that she wasn't available. "Both Brooke and Peyton are amazing friends."

"Cheerleaders aren't good friends."

"They're more than just cheerleaders," Haley stated, getting tired of Taylor referring to them as cheerleaders, as if that was the only thing that defined them, which was not the case. "And I'm a cheerleader now too, I'll have you know."

"I can see that," Taylor laughed, shaking her head at Haley's uniform. "Why did you decide to convert to the devil's side anyway?"

"You're such a drama queen," Haley mumbled, walking over to the bed and flopping down beside Taylor on it, staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah know, maybe if you ever stopped by for a visit or even just called, you'd know that I'm best friends with Brooke and Peyton, or that me and Nathan broke up."

"God, I'm sorry, Hay," Taylor apologized, patting Haley's hand in what she hoped was a comforting manor. After a moment, Haley's last comment finally registered with her. "Wait, you and Hot Scott broke up?"

"Yeah," Haley nodded, trying to play it off like it was no big deal. She immediately regretted mentioning the break up to her big sister, but it was more to make a point, and it was too late to take it back now. "A couple of weeks ago."

"Why did you guys break up?" Taylor questioned, pushing herself up into a sitting position, looking down at her baby sister, expecting her to do the same. Haley decided that she's rather stay lying down, not wanting to have to face her sister when she tells her the whole embarrassing ideal. "I thought for sure I was gonna be on Maid of Honor duty before you graduated."

"First, you aren't going to be Maid of Honor at my wedding," Haley informed her, smiling despite herself at the offended look on Taylor's face. "Second, as scary as it seems now, I think I thought that too."

"Then why'd you guys break up?" Taylor didn't know why, but she had a certain feeling in the pit of her stomach, telling her that the story Haley had to tell was not going to be a happy one.

"When you find out that your boyfriend got one of your good friends pregnant, it kinda puts a damper on the relationship," Haley told her, closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the look of pity on the blonde's face.

"He got someone pregnant?" Taylor questioned unbelievingly. She didn't know what she expected to be the reason that the two of them spilt up, but she certainly didn't expect something so daytime. Haley nodded. "While you two were together, right? You guys weren't like on a break or anything?"

"Not even a little," Haley told her, feeling her fist curl into a ball on her side. She hated that she let it all get to her like this still. She took a deep breath and wasn't even a little surprised to see the sympatric look Taylor was sending down on her. She hated getting that look from anyone, but it sucked even more coming from her big sister. "Apparently it had been going on since forever. Peyton just happened to catch him that one time, and everything just started spiraling out of control."

"Wow, Hay," Taylor breathed, moving down the bed a little so when she laid down, her head would be level with Haley's. "I don't know what to say, which is amazing for me, as you know."

"Yeah," Haley sighed, turning her head to look at her sister as she continued. "I think the worst part is that he didn't even tell me. I had to find out from some doctor that called to tell him he was father."

"Didn't you say that Peyton chick saw him?" Taylor asked, and got a nod from the other girl. She thought about calling the cheerleader out on not telling her, looking for any reason to prove that they were not good friends, but she didn't. She forced herself to think about it for a moment, and realized that she probably would have done the same thing, if she were put in that horrible position.

"Yeah, she and Brooke knew for most of the summer," Haley admitted, not sure what Taylor was going to use the information for. She had made it clear that she didn't like Haley's 'new' best friends, and she knew perfectly well how Taylor worked. "But don't put this on them, they just didn't want to hurt me. They're good friends. Better than I could ever ask for."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Taylor semi lied. Trying to convince the doubtful girl by throwing a smile her way. "Just tell me this; did they kick his ass? Or at least threaten to?"

"Not so much, really," Haley answered with a slight laugh. She could see the overprotective glint in Taylor's eyes and as much as she hated it sometimes, it still made her feel more loved knowing that someone in her family not only cared about her, but to that extant. "Not that I know of, anyway."

"Good," Taylor nodded, before winking at Haley. "Cause I want first honors of kicking the bastard's ass! Nobody hurts my Haley-bub and gets away with it." Haley laughed at her, assuming she was only kidding. "I'm serious, you know? Next time I see that shit again, I'm beating him to death." They both shared a little laugh before failing into silence.

"I'm glad you're back, Tay," Haley confessed, knitting her eyebrows together, refusing to guess why she was back all of a sudden. She couldn't deal with a drop in like that, not this year. She knew her sister had reasons for being there, ones that she was obviously not ready to talk about, and she respected her choice to do that. She wasn't going to harass her; she'd have to wait until she was ready to tell her the whole truth.

"Me too, Haley Bear," Taylor smiled, blowing her a kiss and regaining her hold on Haley's hand. "Me too. "

**--OTH--**

"Why won't you let me pay?" Taylor asked her little sister as they walked down the nearly deserted street in the direction of Karen's Café. After spending the rest of the afternoon and some of the evening catching up on all of the stuff they had missed in each other's lives. It was quite a lot considering they hadn't seen each other for almost two years.

"Because I work there," Haley told her with an eye roll. "Employee discount, hello. Besides, if I didn't insist on paying, Karen would give it to me for free, so there's no point in making you use that hard earned money on little old me."

"Jeez, Hay," Taylor laughed, bumping her hip with the smaller girl's. "I was just offering to be nice. You didn't have to make a whole list."

"Shut up," Haley replied, slapping the blonde playfully on her shoulder. Haley couldn't help the happy feeling wash over her and it made her feel kind of guilty. She felt bad that she could feel so happy about something while her best friends were all suffering. Obviously she was still upset over everything that happened with Nathan, but after just spending a few hours with Taylor she was feeling better. She just wished that Peyton and Brooke and Lucas and Jake had some way of finding a little happiness somewhere else.

"So," Taylor begin, an all too familiar glint in her eyes as she spoke. "Do you think that hottie best friend of yours will be there?" Haley had to fight the urge to scowl at her sister. She knew exactly what Taylor was thinking and she knew that it would only case pain and heartache. She also knew that Taylor wouldn't care who she hurt in the process, so if Haley was going to stop this disaster from happening, she was going to have to nip it in the bud.

"Sorry, Tay," Haley spoke, her voice dripping with irritation at the older girl's inconsiderate thoughts. "I don't think Brookie swings that way."

"Like I would wanna get with that if I were gay," Taylor scoffed, smirking and winking at a random guy that walked by them. Haley suppressed an eye roll at her actions. "You know I was talking about Hot Lucas."

"He's three years younger than you, Taylor," Haley warned her. "The whole Ashton and Demi thing is so last year." Taylor waved her hand as if the age difference didn't mean a thing to her, and Haley suspected that it didn't. "He's also one of my best friends _and_ the ex-boyfriend of one of my other best friends."

"The key word being ex, Haley-bub," Taylor sing song, as she played with the strap of her purse and picking up her pace slightly.

"Taylor," Haley called after her, moving faster to catch up with her big sister. "I know I didn't tell you the circumstances of their break up, but just trust me when I say that it's complicated."

"What break up isn't?"

"Just leave him alone," Haley warned her, tugging on the blonde's arm and bringing her to a halt to face her. Taylor opened her mouth to say something and Haley quickly continued. "I'm serious, Taylor. Their relationship is really complicated right now, but they're on kind of a break. The kind of break where they agreed not to see other people."

"How very Ross and Rachel of them," Taylor quipped, already bored with this conversation. She immediately stopped her sigh when she saw the glare Haley was sending her way. "Fine. I'll leave Hot Lucas alone. For now."

"You're unbelievable," Haley huffed, turning on her heel and continuing on her way to the Café. Taylor stood there for a moment longer before chasing after her little sister.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She finally caught up with the shorter brunette and easily fell in step with her once again.

"It means that you always have to mess things up," Haley snapped at her. She continued on for a few more feet before coming to a halt again, causing the blonde to do the same as she looked at Haley in surprise. "You've only been her for half a day and you're already planning out how you can ruin Brooke's life."

"Hay, come on…"

"No," Haley stopped her, refusing to let Taylor sweet talk her way out of this one. She loved her sister, she did, but she was not going to let her hurt Brooke. "I know that you don't like Brooke for whatever reason that is beyond me, and that's fine, you don't have to like her, but you are _not_ going to break her heart. I don't care if you think Lucas is hot or not, you're not going to go after him. There are hundreds of other perfectly fine guys that you can have, just leave Lucas alone."

Taylor thought about arguing with her sister, but she could tell that Haley was serious about this. She knew how much Haley cared about her friends, and whether she liked it or not, Brooke was apparently one of Haley's best friends. Taylor didn't give a crap if she hurt Brooke, but she knew that hurting Brooke would hurt Haley, and she would never want to do that.

"Okay," she said with a small smile, hoping Haley would forgive her. She hated when Haley was mad at her. "I promise to leave Lucas alone. But I'm not doing this for Brooke, it's all for you."

"Thank you," Haley told her, still not breaking her resolve face just yet. She found it hard to keep her straight face when Taylor was giving her such a goofy grin in apology.

"Oh, come on, my little Haley-bub," Taylor tried, nudging her shoulder in hopes of breaking the ice. After a moment Haley finally gave in and grinned at her, rolling her eyes at herself for a change and looping her arm through her sister's as they continued on down the street.

"Hi, kiddo," Karen greeted when they entered the Café. "Hi, Taylor." The sisters grinned at the older woman as finally realized what she had just said and did a double take at the blonde standing in front of her. "Taylor!"

"Hey, Karen!" They two of them embraced, not believing that it had been so long since the last time that they had seen each other. After a moment, Karen pulled back, holding Taylor at arms length and looking her over. "Do I look good, or what?"

"You look beautiful," Karen nodded with a smile, still not believing that the girl standing in front of her was really there. Granted, Karen and Taylor had never been extremely close, not as close as Haley was to the older women, but they had always talked and stuff. "When did you get in? I didn't know you were coming back."

"It was kind of a surprise deal," Taylor told her, smiling so big she thought her face was going to break. Even though she wasn't as close with Karen as her little sister was, and she knew that Karen probably didn't consider her to be a daughter like she did Haley, she still kinda thought of Karen as a mother, or at least a mother figure. She was a lot closer to her than she was with Lydia James.

"Well, I'm so glad you're back, sweetie," Karen told her, running her hand up and down her arm in a comforting way. She didn't know what had happened to Taylor, but she got the feeling that she was upset about something. Call it a mother's instinct, but she just got a vibe from the girl.

"Am I invisible or something?" Haley asked with a laugh, amused that the two were so caught up in catching up that they forgot she was still standing there. Taylor snorted at the comment, which earned her a smack to the back of her head and Karen shook her head.

"Of course not, baby," Karen laughed, bringing the smaller girl into a gentle hug. Haley stuck her tongue out at Taylor over Karen's shoulder and smirked at her victoriously. They had always fought over attention. Considering their parents hardly gave any to them when they were younger, even little bit counted to the girls.

"I saw that," Karen told her with an amused smile as she pulled back from the hug. Haley's mouth dropped open at her words. "Mothers see everything," Karen told her with a smirk. She laughed at Haley's pout and patted the girl on the head before heading over to take a customer's order.

The girls immediately started to argue the moment Karen was out of hearing range and moved over to the gang's normal booth in the corner. After Karen was done with the other tables, she took the their orders (mac and cheese for Haley and a cheese burger for Taylor) and brought them their food.

They were almost done their food when the bell above the door jingled and Haley heard her name being called. The James sisters looked up from their meal to see the Scott brothers making their way over to the table, one of them reluctantly.

"I see the prodigal daughter has finally returned," Lucas teased with a grin, leaning down and giving Taylor a big hug. He had always had the biggest crush on her when they were younger, something that Haley was well aware of, which was why she was keeping a careful eye on her sister and best friend as they hugged in greeting.

"Haley," Nathan called, bringing her out of her daze. She snapped her head up and meet his beautiful blue eyes, instantly regretting the action when a whole bunch of supposed to be buried feelings came rushing to the surface.

"H-Hey, Nate," she greeted back with what she hoped was a friendly smile.

"Do you think I could talk to you for a second?" Haley glanced over to see Lucas settling down into the booth beside Taylor, the two of them already engrossed in a conversation.

"Sure," she told him. "Let's go over there." He nodded and started over to the booth that Haley had indicated. Sending Taylor a warning glare, Haley slipped out of the booth and walked over to where Nathan was waiting for her. After she sat down across from him, she gave him a moment to start, but he didn't seem to know how. "So what's up?"

"I was thinking about what we talked this afternoon," Nathan told her, finally just deciding that he needed to start this, even if he didn't know the best way to do it.

"The cheerleading thing?" Haley asked. She knew that it was about the college part of their conversation, but for some reason she felt the need to torture Nathan about this. "I told you, I'm doing it for college…"

"That's the part that I wanted to talk about," he cut her off, trying his best to ignore the clench he felt in the pit of his stomach at the thought of Haley leaving for college early.

"Okay," she stated, waiting for him to continue. She should have known that he was going to say something; she couldn't expect to just drop a bomb like that on him and not expect some kind of talk afterward.

"Look," he began, shifting in his seat. "I know that I lost all say in your future a long time ago, but I can't just sit here and not ask you not to do this." Haley opened her mouth to interrupt him, but he held up his hand and shook his head to tell her not to say anything. "Just because I'm an ass doing mean that I don't still love you, and I hope that you know that."

"I do," Haley told him, sending him a sad smile. She knew he still loved her, just like she still loved him, but that didn't change anything. All it did was make all of this even harder.

"And you have to know how much it will kill me if you leave town," he finished, letting his eyes drift to the table underneath his hands, nervously. He knew that he was starting to sound sad, but he just couldn't shake that horrible feeling he got when Haley had told him about her plan for early admissions that afternoon. "So please, don't do this. I know that I hurt you, and it must suck to have to see me all the time, but I'll try to make this better, just please don't go because of me."

"Nathan," she said softly, placing her hand on top of his to get his attention. The action had happened without her thoughts, and the moment she realized it, she pulled her hand away, but she had gotten his attention. "You do know what early admissions is, right?" His blank stare was all the answer that she needed. She let out a soft laugh. "I'm not leaving anytime soon, I'll be here all school year. I'm just applying to colleges earlier than everyone else, and I'll know where I'm going earlier."

"Oh," he breathed, feeling his insides relax at her words. "Well that's stupid. Why would you want to do that?" She couldn't help the smile that came to her lips at his words.

"To get it out of the way," she answered with a shrug. "I don't know, I just want to know where I'm going as soon as possible. I want to have some idea of what I'm going to be doing next year before Christmas. That way I can head out there during the summer maybe, get everything set up, you know?"

"Oh." This time, his sigh didn't sound so happy. Realization began to sink in. Haley was planning her future already, at least for the next five or so years, and it didn't look like he was going to be a part of it. And that hurt just as much as the thought of her not being there for the rest of the year.

They had always talked about deciding on a college together. Nathan was going to work his hardest on schoolwork so he could have a change to get accepted to a good school if he couldn't get a scholarship, and Haley was going to help him. They had never really discussed what school they wanted to go to, but neither of them really cared, as long as they were together.

Nathan knew that he had a long way to go before Haley would even consider forgiving him, but he had complete faith that they would end up together. He knew that he had a lot to make up for, but he was willing to do anything to make everything up to Haley. He was hoping for before Christmas, but he would wait.

But that plan wasn't looking so good right now, not with Haley already getting ready to apply to colleges. She couldn't be making all of these decisions without him, not when they were things that would affect them as much as her deciding what college she wanted to go to.

He could feel her starting to slip away from him, faster than he ever thought possible. He had been under the impression that he had all the time in the world to win back Haley's heart, that he could give her space and let her come to him, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. If he wanted to get Haley back before she planned out the rest of her life without him, he was going to have to get off his ass and start making it up to her.

"Do you want to hang out sometime?" The randomness of the question caught Haley off guard and it took her a moment to process his words.

"Nathan, I told you that I'm not ready to…"

"No, no, I understand that," he assured her, sitting up straighter in his seat, all the nervousness from his voice gone as he spoke. "I know that what I did is just too big to forget about, I know that, and I completely understand where you're coming from." She looked at him strangely, not sure where he was going with all of this. "I just think it would be cool if we could be friends. Hang out."

"Friends?" she asked, the word sounding strange on her lips when she thought about it in regards to Nathan. She couldn't imagine Nathan being anything other than her soul mate.

"Yeah, friends," he repeated, his hopefulness plan in his voice. "You said that you forgave me, but you couldn't trust me, right?" Haley nodded. "Well then let me start earning your trust back. We can't expect to get passed this if we avoid each other."

"Alright," she agreed, not letting herself think about it too much. She had a bad feeling about this whole thing, but just one look at Nathan told her that she was going to do this. She really did need to have Nathan in her life, as much as she hated to admit it, having him as her friend was better than nothing. "Friends."

"Really?" She laughed at his excitement and nodded. "Awesome." He slipped out of the booth when he saw Lucas starting to stand up. "Well, we just came in here to grab something to go on our way to the Rivercourt, so I gotta get goin."

"Okay." She was amazed at how much better she felt at just having a simple conversation with Nathan without all the weirdness.

"You're working tomorrow night, right?"

"Yeah, until 11," she told him, finding it cute that he still knew her schedule. "I'm closing by myself."

"I'll pick you up then," he decided for her, not giving her a chance to argue. She smiled at his offer and nodded.

"Hey, Nate," Lucas called out to him, holding up the two bags of food that his mother had just given him and nodding his head towards the door. Nathan nodded and leaned over, giving Haley a kiss on the cheek before she could protest, not that she would have.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Hales." Without waiting for a reply, Nathan jogged over to Lucas and the two brothers headed out.

He wasn't back with Haley, he wasn't even close, but it was start.

**--OTH--**

Time to review. So do it. Thanks.


	8. I've Been Closing These Doors for Days

_Author's Note:_ Yes, this is a real update. But, before anyone gets too excited, it sucks. Like, really really badly. And I'm sorry, because this is kind of an important chapter, I guess, and I had been excited to write it, so I don't know why I struggled so hard with it. Anyway, I apologize for making everyone wait so long, and I'm sorry that my big return is this crap, but, nothing I can do about it now.

**--OTH--**

"How much longer until you're free?"

It had turned into an extremely slow night at the Café and Haley was just counting down the minutes until closing. Brooke and Peyton had come in for dinner, obviously not remembering that it was Jake's night to work as well. After they got over the initial awkwardness that was Peyton and Jake being in the same room, Haley agreed to serve them, since they were sitting in Jake's section. To make the evening even more uncomfortable, Taylor had come in to see her as well, which almost caused a catfight between her and Brooke. By the time the dinner rush was over, she was exhausted from playing the go between and was glad when things finally started to slow down.

"Half an hour," Haley told her sister, wiping down the last table for the fifth time that night. She held the phone between her ear and shoulder and carefully stacked the chair on top of the table. "But Nathan's always late, so probably like forty minutes, but I'll be off the clock at eleven."

"Remind me again why I'm letting that asshole pick you up?"

"Because I didn't ask your permission," Haley suggested, rolling her eyes. Yet another thing that Brooke and Taylor had in common; a strong dislike for Nathan. She really didn't understand why those two didn't get along. "I told you already, he wants to be friends, I wouldn't mind that, so, we're gonna try to be friends."

"You two will never be friends," Taylor laughed at her, pulling her long blonde hair into a loose ponytail. "Honestly, Hay, if I had a dollar for everytime an ex-boyfriend said he wanted to still be friends with me I…"

"Wouldn't need an excuse to be unemployed?"

"… Would be rich, as the saying goes." Haley rolled her eyes and finished stacking the chairs at table six as she listened to her sister babble.

"No offense, Tay," she began. "But what Nathan and I had is much more complex than anything you've ever had with a guy."

"All the more reason that this is never going to work," the blonde retorted, stepping around the mess she had already created in her room and flopping down on her bed. "Nathan is obvious still in love with you, Hellie, and you're obviously still in love with him."

"So?" Ever since she and Nathan had broken up, there was never a time that Haley had denied her feelings for him. Of course she still loved him; feelings like that didn't just go away, no matter what that boy did. It sucked for her, and made this whole situation harder, but there it was.

"So, obviously one thing is going to lead to another…"

"Unlike you," Haley cut her off, knowing exactly where the older girl was going with this. "I can control my hormones."

"I'm not talking about hormones, Hay," Taylor corrected her gently. "It's the heart you've gotta worry about."

Haley stopped her movements at her sister's words and closed her eyes. That was exactly what she didn't need to be hearing right now. She knew she wasn't going to jump all over Nathan, she had always been able to control herself before, but she was so afraid that all her will would just melt away if he said a few sweet words and shot her that smile of his. Sometimes it was so easy to forget about all the horrible things he had done to her when they were around each other. She was sure part of that was because she was trying so hard to forget them.

"Hay?"

"I have to go, Taylor," Haley told her softly, her mind still clouded from her thoughts. "I can't … I'll see you at home."

"Haley…"

"Bye." She pulled her cell away from her ear and flipped it shut, placing it on the tabletop. She stood there for a few moments, before shaking her head, refusing to get caught up in that line of thought again.

She needed to keep herself busy, she silently decided. She always ruined things when she over thought them. The idea of being with Nathan right now was ridiculous. It was simple as that. There was no way she would ever let herself go there again, whether she got caught up in the moment and kissed him or not, that wouldn't change the fact that they couldn't be together.

"Stop," she told herself when she realized that she had started thinking about it anyway. She let out a sigh and moved to the next table to finish getting everything ready for closing. There was still at least twenty five minutes until she could lock the doors, but she had closed the Café enough times to know that nobody ever came in after ten.

She was able to go a whole ten minutes without thinking about Nathan, until her cell phone rang once again. She thought about not answering it, figuring that it was probably just Taylor phoning back to apologize or harass her some more, but walked over to get it anyway, just encase it was Nathan.

"Hello?"

"What's cracking my favorite white girl?" Haley couldn't stop the silly ass grin from coming to her face at the greeting.

"What's up, Skills?" she laughed, taking her phone with her as she went back over to finish stacking the last table.

"Just finishing a game of pick up down at the Rivercourt," he answered, tossing Fergie the ball back. "You working tonight?"

"Just waiting to close," she told her, finally down with the tables. She smiled at a job well done and shuffled over to the counter and sat down at one of the stools, slowly spinning it around. "Why, are you gonna come mooch some free food?"

"No, we'll pay," he immediately defends and he can practically see her smirking on the other end. He lets out a laugh. "If we have to."

"You're such a brat," she laughs with him, bringing the spinning stool to a stop so she can lean forward on the counter to make sure she had turned off the coffee machines.

"But you love me," he reminds her confidently, motioning to Fergie and Junk that they should start heading home.

"I do," she confirmed without hesitation. "Which is why I'll let you guys have the stuff we didn't sell today." She rolled her eyes when she heard him cheer. "But you guys better hurry up and get here cause Nathan is walking me home, so I'm not staying late for the likes of you."

"Homeboy definitely wouldn't wait around for my black ass," Skills agreed, choosing not to question his best friend about why her ex-boyfriend was picking her up.

"I think I'm the only one in the world that would," Haley teased, deciding to let his comment go. She knew that Nathan didn't exactly like Skills and she also knew that Skills was aware of that. There was no point in getting into an argument about it.

"And that's why I love you," he replied, pushing Junk when he started making kissy faces at him. "Alright, girl, we'll be there pretty soon. I expect to the food to be ready and waiting for us."

"At this point, you'll be lucky if I haven't spit in it."

"That's cold." Haley laughed and told him to hurry up one more time before shutting her phone. She was about to check to make sure she hadn't missed any calls when the bell above the door signaled that someone had entered.

"Amazing, you're early for once," she teases as she spins around, only to come face to face with a man that was most definitely not Nathan. She jumped slightly in surprised before smiling sheepishly at the guy and standing up. "Sorry about that, I thought you were someone else."

"It's no problem."

"So, how can I help you?"

**--OTH--**

"You have no idea what you're talking about, dawg," Skills denied as the three guys rounded the corner to the street they were looking for. "Hales is my best friend, you know that."

"Not by choice," Junk teased, grabbing the ball from Fergie.

"Yeah, are you saying you wouldn't hit that if she asked?"

"You can stop talking about Haley like that," Skills warned them, stealing the ball away from Junk roughly. Fergie and Junk shared a look and burst out laughing at the way their friend was acting. It was so obvious to them that Skills had a thing for Haley; they just didn't understand why he wouldn't admit it.

"Chill, man, we're just kidding," Junk assured him, letting out a puff of air when he caught the ball Skills has thrown at him.

"Yeah, you know Hales is like a little sister to us," Fergie reminded him. Skills nodded and gave up, deciding it was best to just let it go. They continued walking down the street and it wasn't until they were just outside of the Café that they noticed that the lights were off inside. "What the…"

"Yo, I thought you said Haley would wait for us?"

"She would," Skills mumbled, moving away from them and stepping towards the window. He knew she said that Nathan was coming to pick her up, but she would have made him wait for them, no matter how much he didn't want to. Fergie and Junk caught up with him and they all leaned against the window to try to see if they could see through the reflective glass.

"Shit, is that her on the ground?" The moment the words were out of Junk's mouth, the three of them raced for the door.

"Fuck, why is it locked?"

"Move, move," Fergie instructed him, pushing his friends out of the way. He shielded his eyes and kicked in the glass, immediately reaching in and unlocking the door. The boys didn't waste any time and quickly filed into the Café.

"Hales," Skills called, running over to her as Junk flipped on the lights, making it much easier for them to see. Skills felt his heart leap to his throat when he saw Haley's shaking form on the floor. He rushed over to her and knelt by her side, softly calling her name, but she didn't seem to hear him. He gently reached forward to touch her face, cupping her chin to get her to look up at him. "_Shit_."

"What?" Fergie asked from behind him, trying to get a look. He wasn't as close with Haley as Skills was, but he still considered her a good friend, and he was really starting to get worried. Skills leaned to the side a little and Fergie's eyes widened when he saw Haley's bruised eyes, cut lip and tearstained face. "_Shit_," he agreed.

"Baby girl, what happened?" The only answer Skills got was a slight whimper from Haley. She shook her head and leaned towards him, and he took her in his arms immediately. He tried his best to stop her shaking, but it just wouldn't cease.

"This place was jacked," Junk informed them from behind the counter. He looked down at the empty cash register before pushing it closed.

"Don't just stand there, call the cops!" Skills shouted at Fergie, who quickly caught the cell phone that was thrown at him. Haley jumped at his loud voice and started shaking harder. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay," he assured her, pulling her back into a hug.

Fergie watched them from across the Café, a lump forming in his throat as he waited for someone to answer. He wasn't much of a fighter, but there was nothing he wanted more than to go find the bastard that did this to Haley, the girl that they had always considered to be a little sister, ever since the first day Lucas brought her down to the Rivercourt.

His eyes traveled to Junk, who was still standing behind the counter and he wasn't surprised to see a similar look on his face. All of the guys just loved Haley to death, and the thought that something like this had happened to her, it killed them. They weren't exactly the most popular guys in school, or the smartest, and Haley, a girl that was both of those things, didn't even think twice about being friends with them. A girl like that, she didn't deserve this.

"It's okay, now, Hales," Skills whispered over and over, rocking her tiny frame back and forth in his arms. He shut his eyes tightly and kissed the top of her head, rubbing his hands up and down her back to try to soothe her. "We're here, nothing's going to happen to you, I promise."

"Cops are on the way."

"Thanks, man." Fergie nodded and knelt down in front of his friends, handing the phone back to Skills. He slowly reached out towards Haley, not wanting to scare her. When he saw that she didn't seemed freaked out, he grabbed her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze.

"You're okay now, Hales," he told her. He knew Skills has been telling her that, but he didn't imagine that she believed it just quite yet. She bit her lip and nodded her head slightly in acknowledgement and buried herself against Skills.

**--OTH--**

"What the…" Karen mumbled as the ringing of her phone woke her. It took her a moment to realize what the incessant noise was before she rolled over and answered the phone before it could wake up her son. "Hello?"

"Is this Karen Roe?" came the unfamiliar voice on the other end. Karen rubbed her eyes and tried to wake herself up.

"Yes, this is she," she answered. "How can I help you."

"This is Officer Kenwood," he began, and Karen immediately shot up at his words. She knew her son was tucked away safely in his bedroom, and that gave her some comfort, but she just knew there was something wrong. She still had one more kid she couldn't account for.

"Officer?"

"There was a break in at your Café tonight," he informed her, looking over at the poor girl that had been working alone at the time. The guys that found her, her friends apparently, where hovering around her to make sure that she was okay.

"Oh my God," Karen gasped, her hand coming to her mouth. It took a moment to process the information before Karen remembered that Haley was closing by herself that night. "Haley, is she…"

"Miss James is fine," he assured her, smiling when he heard her sigh in relief. "Some young men by the names of Antoine Taylor, Marcus Ferguson and Anthony Stevens found her."

"Oh thank God," she sighed, holding a hand to her chest to get her heart to stop beating so quickly. She pulled the covers off and grabbed for the nearest clothes to slip on. "I'm heading down there right now. I should be there in five minutes."

"Okay, ma'am." Karen tossed the phone onto her bed as she pulled a random shirt over her head and moved towards the door. She moved quietly but quickly through the house, careful not to wake Lucas.

**--OTH--**

Just as promised, five minutes later Karen's car pulled up to the curb outside her Café and she immediately ran towards Haley, who was sitting in the back of an ambulance getting her face cleaned up.

"Haley," she called as she rushed over her. Haley couldn't help but laugh a little as the woman came barreling towards her. She quickly suggest to the paramedic that he might want to get out of the way before Karen reached them.

"Karen, it's okay, you…" Haley tried to tell her, but her words were cut off when Karen wrapped her arms around in her a bone-crushing hug. She was suddenly very grateful that she had been able to convince the officer not to call Taylor because she would have been even worse.

"Oh, baby," Karen mumbled against Haley's shoulder. "I'm so sorry this happened to you and I'm so glad that you're okay, and…"

"Karen." If Karen heard her at all she didn't show any sign of it. Haley struggled to get out of her hold, but it was useless. "Karen, I can't breathe."

"Oh," she squeaked, pulling away from Haley. She held the young girl's face in her hands to get a good look at the damage. She had a cut lip, a black eye forming and a bandage on her forehead. "Oh, sweetie," she sighed, brushing some of Haley's hair out of her face. Skills could tell this should be a private moment and motioned to Fergie and Junk that they should leave them alone.

"You okay, man?" Junk asked Skills as they walked away from the crying women. They couldn't leave just yet encase they needed to answer any more questions. The cops had already questioned all of them, including Haley about what had happened, before they called Karen to tell her about the break in.

"I'm okay," he assured them, watching as Karen kissed Haley's injured forehead. He bit his lip and the three of them sat down on the curb outside the Café until they were needed for something. "It's just … that was way too close."

"She's okay," Fergie reminded him. Skills smiled sadly and nodded, folding his arms on his knees and resting his head on them. It had been one hell of a long night. Junk gave him a hearty pat on the back in an attempt to make him feel better before him and Fergie decided it would be best just to stay silent.

**--OTH--**

"Okay, that's all for now, Miss James," the officer told her, closing his note pad and sliding it into his back pocket. "Here's my card," he told her, handing her a card with all of his contact information on it. "If you remember anything, please call me."

"I will," Haley promised him, her voice quiet and shy. Karen smiled warmly at the man and shook his hand.

"Thank you." The man nodded and went on his way, leaving the girls alone. "You okay, sweetie?" Haley put on the best smile she could muster and nodded her head, looking up at her with glisten eyes. Karen's heart broke at Haley's attempt to look brave. Karen smiled sadly at her and kissed her temple. "I love you."

"I know you do."

"And I'm so sorry that this happened…"

"It's not your fault, Karen," Haley told her, stopping the older woman before she could go any further. "I booked this shift, you didn't ask me to do it or anything. It could have just as easily happened any other night."

"I know, I just hate that you got hurt," Karen told her, her eyes watering at the thought. She was just thankful that all Haley could was a little bit of cuts and bruises since the whole thing could have been a whole lot worse. "I never should have let you start working so late by yourself. It's not safe."

"Nathan was supposed to be there," Haley reminded her. She immediately closed her eyes at the realization. She didn't blame Nathan, he was just running late as usual and there's no way he could have known this was going to happen, but she knew that he was going to blame himself. She also knew that Brooke and Taylor and a lot of other people were probably going to blame him. "It's nobody's fault, except for maybe that guy's, but…"

"I'm just glad that nothing serious happened," Karen cut her off before she could get into a ramble. "Okay, I think you should get going. You're not needed here anymore, and I think you could use some sleep."

"I really don't want to face Taylor tonight," Haley sighed, knowing her older was going to freak the hell out when she heard about what happened. She just didn't have the energy to deal with that tonight.

"You can always come back to my house," Karen suggested, running her fingers through Haley's hair affectionately. "They want me to stick around for a bit, so you'll have to wait, but…"

"It's okay, Skills already told me I could stay at his house tonight."

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Hales," Karen told her softly, knowing how sensitive the girl got about the subject of her relationship with Skills. Karen had known both teens since they were toddles and watched their friendship evolve into what it was today, and she knew how blurry the line seemed to be with them.

"Why not?"

"You and Nathan…"

"There is no me and Nathan," Haley told her, trying her best to hide her regret and bitterness at that fact. "And you know what? Nathan's not even here, for whatever reason. So, if I want to go home with one of my best friends, who also happens to be the guy that was there for me tonight, I'm going to."

"Okay, okay, calm down," Karen replied, holding her hands up in defense. "I was just making sure." Haley dropped her eyes and sighed, nodding her head.

"I know, I'm sorry." She grabbed Karen's hand and she helped her get down from the ambulance. "I've just had a rough night, if you couldn't tell." Karen laughed and told her it was fine.

"Come here, baby." Haley practically threw herself into Karen's arms at the invitation and held on for dear life. After Skills and Fergie were able to calm her down when they first came in, she had been pretty successful at keeping her emotions under control, but the moment Karen called her baby, something inside of her just broke and her was sobbing against her surrogate mother.

Haley hadn't let herself think of the whole ordeal too much, or think about what could have happened if she hadn't of been so lucky. She'll never forget the ice-cold panic that ran through her the moment the man pulled out his gun and pointed it at her. The first thing she thought of, after she got over the initial 'Holy shit' reaction was that she wished Nathan were there to protect her.

And it wasn't because she knew that he was supposed to be there, or that she hoped he'd make it just in time to save her. It was because Nathan had promised to always protect her, and when she needed help, he was still the first person she thought to call. It seemed that her head had accepted their break up, but she didn't think her heart had yet.

**--OTH--**

"Thanks," Haley spoke softly, sitting down on the edge of his bed and gulping down the Advil and water. Skills didn't like in a very big house, and with his parents and little sister, there was no spare room for Haley to sleep in.

"Are you sure you don't want me to sleep on the couch?" Skills asked, pulling his sweaty jersey off. He grabbed a clean pair of boxers and a wife beater to change into, while tossing an oversized football jersey and basketball shorts in Haley's direction.

"Don't be silly," she told him, catching the clothes. "I wouldn't want to put you out. It's no big deal, we've shared a bed before, you know?" He nodded and headed towards the bathroom.

"I'm just gonna take a quick shower," he told her. "I still smell from basketball earlier and I don't think you wanna sleep next to that." She laughed and waited for him to disappear before changing into the clothes he had given her to sleep in.

After she had changed and was ready for bed, she grabbed Skills' cell phone off his nightstand and searched through his phonebook, hoping he had Brooke's number. Brooke was on speed dial on her phone and she didn't think she'd be able to remember the number when her brain was working overtime to check up with the night's events. The man had smashed her cell phone against the wall of the Café the moment he saw it in her hand, so she was praying he had her number stored.

She smiled when she saw 'Tigger' appear on the screen, and she remembered the day she had programmed it into her best friend's phone. She pressed the call button and paced around the room while she waited for Brooke to answer.

"Hello?" came Brooke's surprising groggy greeting. It wasn't until she checked her watch that she realized it was two in the morning. Two in the morning and she still hadn't heard from Nathan. Though, there was always a change that he had tried to call her cell to explain why he was late or in this case, not coming at all.

"Hey, Tigger," Haley whispered, not wanting to disturb her too much. "Sorry to wake you up at this hour."

"Hales?" The brunette groaned as she rolled over to untangle herself from the sheets and sit up. She glanced at her alarm clock and moaned again. "It's two in the morning, Tutor Girl."

"I know, I'm sorry, but I need a favor." Haley hated to bother Brooke, but she really didn't want to deal with Taylor tonight. She knew her sister would be worried if she woke up and she wasn't there. She didn't want to call her sister herself because she knew that Taylor would be able to tell there was something wrong immediately, not to mention that fact that she probably wouldn't be to happy with the idea that she was spending the night at Skills' house.

"You wake me up at two in the morning and you're gonna ask for a favor?" Brooke teased, not really mad at her best friend. She knew it had to be important if she was calling her at this hour. "It better be good."

"I need you to call Taylor," she answered, bracing herself for Brooke's answer. She wasn't surprised to hear Brooke laughing on the other end. She really should have called Peyton.

"You're kidding, right?" Brooke asked even though she knew she wasn't. She could practically see the guilty look on Haley's face and sighed. Haley knew she hated Taylor and she'd never ask unless it was important. "Why?"

"I need you to tell her that I'm staying at your house tonight."

"But you're not."

"I know that, obviously," Haley sighed.

"You're not with Nathan, are you?" Brooke asked, remembering that the boy was supposed to be picking her up from the Café that night. "Cause I thought you were over that whole thing."

"I'm with Skills," she told her, even though she knew Brooke would take it completely the wrong way. "I'm staying at his house tonight."

"You move fast, James," Brooke teased, a mischievous grin coming to her face. As much as she wanted Haley and Skills to get together, even if just so she knew Haley wouldn't get back together with Nathan, she knew that wasn't what this phone call was about.

"It's not like that," Haley insisted.

"I know," Brooke laughed. "But seriously, why are you staying there? And why can't you call your slutty sister yourself?" Haley sighed, but decided it was best to leave that comment alone.

"Because if I call, she'll be able to tell that something's wrong."

"Something's wrong?" Brooke asked, any trace of teasing leaving her voice. She quickly leaned over and turned on the lamp on her nightstand, closing her eyes for a second as the bright light flooded the room. "What's going on?"

"Brooke, it was nothing…"

"No, I won't call unless you tell me what's going on," Brooke told her, leaving no room for argument. Knowing Haley, she could have two broken legs and she'd still try to tell Brooke that it was nothing.

"You have to promise not to freak out, okay?"

"I promise," she agreed immediately, obviously not meaning it. Haley knew she was lying, but it didn't seem like she had any choice. Brooke was going to find out the next day anyway, so there was no point in prolonging it.

"The Café got held up while I was waiting for Nathan," Haley explained quickly, waiting for Brooke's blow up. "Some guy came in with a gun and stole all the money."

"What!" Brooke exclaimed, wide awake now. A million different scenarios ran through her head as she played the scene out in her mind. "Oh my God, are you okay?"

"For the most part," Haley assured her, picking up a framed picture from the desk. She studied it for a moment before smiling; remembering that day like it was yesterday. "Just a couple bumps and bruises."

"Define 'a couple bumps and bruises'," Brooke instructed her, again not trusting the other girl's definition of okay. She wouldn't put it back Haley to be lying to her right now just to get her to do what she wants. She rolled her eyes when she heard Haley sigh on the other end.

"I have a cut lip, a black eye and I few stitches on my forehead," Haley told her, not believing that she was actually having the conversation over the phone. "I'm fine, really. Skills, Fergie and Junk found me like five minutes after the guy left."

"And where was Nathan?" Brooke asked, her voice tight to make sure that Haley knew that she was blaming him for this whole mess. She knew she was being irrational, but that didn't matter when it came to Nathan and how he continued to hurt Haley.

"Cut it out, Brooke," Haley warned her. "It happened before closing, so even if he did show up when he was supposed, which he didn't, it still would have been after the guy left, so it's a moot point."

"Come on, Hales…"

"No, I'm not getting into this with you," Haley sighed, heading back over to the bed with the picture in hand. "Are you going to call Taylor and cover for me, or what?"

"You know I will," Brooke said with a matching sigh. It was times like this that she wished Haley didn't have her so whipped. "Okay, I'll call now."

"Thank you, Tigger."

"It's never a problem, Hales, you know that," Brooke assured her, even though she wasn't particularly happen to be calling Taylor, and she knew that the blonde would be just as happy to be hearing from her as well. "So I'm telling her that you're staying over at my house, but not saying anything about what happened?"

"Yeah," Haley nodded even though she knew Brooke couldn't see her. "I just don't have the energy to deal with her overprotectiveness tonight."

"Well, I hope you're ready to deal with my overprotectiveness tomorrow, cause I'm picking you up first thing in the morning."

"Brooke," Haley groaned, cursing herself for not seeing that one coming. "At least let me have breakfast here. I haven't been over here in forever, it'll be nice."

"Nice," Brooke finally relented. "But I'm still picking you up. So tell Skills I'll be there bright and early to drive you guys to school."

"He'll be so thrilled he won't have to take the bus for once," Haley teased when she heard the shower turn off.

"Make sure he knows he shouldn't get used to it," Brooke warned her. "He's my competition."

"Competition?"

"To be your best best friend." Haley shook her head and couldn't help but laugh, she really should have known.

"You're crazy," Haley told her, crawling further onto the bed and resting against the headboard. "But I love you anyway."

"You know I love you too, Tutor Girl." It wasn't that she didn't believe Haley, but she needed to make sure. "And you're sure you're alright?"

"I promise," Haley whispered, glad to know that the cheerleader was so worried about her when she really didn't need to be. "You'll see for yourself in the morning." She glanced up and smiled at Skills as he came back into the room, freshly washed and dressed like he was ready for bed. "Look, I've gotta go, Brookie, but thanks again for calling Taylor. You have no idea how much it means to me."

"And you have no idea how glad I am that you're okay." The girls smiled on their own ends and said their goodbyes, hanging up their phones.

"That better not have been long distance," Skills warned her as he set his alarm clock on the nightstand before getting into his side of the bed.

"Just Brooke," Haley informed him, slipping under the covers. Skills followed her lead and noticed the picture she was still holding in her hand. He leaned over and silently took the picture from her hands and smiled when he saw what picture it was.

"That day was off the hook," he remembered, laughing at the picture of him, Haley, Lucas, Fergie, Junk, Mouth and Jimmy standing in the middle of the Rivercourt on the last day of summer before their Freshman year.

"Please, we were all scared shitless to start high school," she reminded him, taking the picture from his hands and placing it on the table beside her, turning off the lamp as well. The two old friends laid on their backs in the dark, both staring blankly at the ceiling. "How would have thought we'd end up here, huh?"

"I think we did pretty well," Skills spoke softly, turning his head to gage her reaction. "We're all still best friends, except maybe Mouth and Edwards, but it's not like we don't still hang out with them sometimes. And we've got even more friends now, too. We lasted pretty nicely."

"High school's not over yet," Haley reminded him, her voice wavering slightly as she thought about how hard the coming year was going to be, and how many difficult decisions she was going to be forced to make. "But I guess if I could survive this summer, I can survive anything, right?"

"And you've got me with you now," Skills promised her, leaning over and kissing her gently on the forehead. "And I'll make sure you're okay." Haley smiled at him with watery eyes and patted him affectionately on the cheek, leaning in and giving him a chaste kiss on the lips.

"Goodnight, Antoine," she whispered, falling back against her pillow and closing her eyes. She smiled when she heard Skills groan behind her.

"You and my Mama are the only ones that get away with calling me that."

**--OTH--**

"Calm the fuck down, I'm coming," Taylor yelled as she slowly made her way down the stairs of her dark house. She flipped on the hallway light so she wouldn't fall on her ass, and regretted that idea immediately when she almost lost all use of her eyes. The loud banging continued, forcing her to pick up the pace. By the time she got to the door, she was beyond pissed. She quickly unlocked it and whipped the door open, scowling at the boy on the other side.

"Hey," he told her sheepishly when he saw her. He had completely forgotten that the old James sister was back home.

"What do you want, Nathan?" Taylor didn't want anything to do with the youngest Scott on a normal day, and she certainly had no patience for him at 3 o'clock in the morning.

"I need to talk to Haley," he insisted, trying to take a step into the house. The blonde blocked his advances and held her ground. "Please, I need to explain to her…"

"She's not here," she cut him off, not interested in his excuses at all. Brooke had told her that Nathan never did show up at the Café, forcing Haley to call Brooke for a ride. "She's sleeping over at Brooke's house since someone didn't remember the plans they had made."

"Just let me explain…" he tried desperately, knowing that if Taylor hated him even more than she already did that he'd have an even lesser shot at winning Haley back.

"There's nothing to explain, you ditched her."

"But…"

"Goodnight, Nathan," she told him tightly, closing the door in his face and locking it afterwards. He watched through the blurry glass of the front door as her retreating figure flicked off the lights and headed upstairs.

"Fuck," he cursed, closing his eyes and rested his forehead against the cool glass in defeat.

He was back at square one.

**--OTH--**

I know, I know, you're pissed, but guess what? I told you it sucked and I do promise that this is all going to lead somewhere. For all of you guys that thought Haley was going to stay single while she and Nathan tried to work this whole thing out, too bad. But remember, that doesn't mean that she'll be dating Skills. And I do promise to give Nathan's explanation for not showing up in the next chapter.Anyway, wow, lots of scene changes. Let me know what you guys think, but no flames. I have a weird obsession with Skills and Haley, maybe cause they remind me of Veronica and Wallace.

Anyway, review, review, review.


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